Let's Meet Another Fortnight
by TheGrayMan
Summary: Robin wakes up in a grass field he does not recognize and is greeted by a man he remembers murdering. He has no memory of who he is or where he has come from. What secrets are in Robin's past? Are they that of a random citizen, or something much grander?
1. Chapter 1

The unfamiliar scents, there were hundreds of them, and still, he could only focus on one of them. This scent was made up of air exposed to a shining day that was only specked with clouds. Made up of the fauna drinking from calm lakes and nursing their young. From the birds that flew with pride returning home from the receding winter. From the grass that cradled his head like nature's own mattress forming around his body.

And then, it was all gone. He was somewhere familiar, yet cold. It was dimly lit with crackling gothic torches lining evenly spaced columns along the cobblestone walls. The interior showed no sign of abandonment, no cobwebs, decayed furniture, or rotten food. Yet the environment felt like no one had lived happily inside its walls for years. This area was the deliberate opposite of where he was before.

He was engaged in battle with someone, a man filled with darkness. Another familiar and cold symbol, the very embodiment of where he was. Where the connection for this man was coming from, he had no idea. He just _felt_ it and the feeling was a strange offshoot of sadness. The same kind of feeling when two people trying to find one another will never see eachother again.

Fighting alongside him was a man embodying the unfamiliar warmth he was in before. He was garbed in a pure white that waged its own war against the bleak environment, and wielded a sword that made him feel hope when he looked at it. What this man symbolized to him was certainty. Certainty in a bright future, where the world would hardly know the definition of hopelessness.

"Robin, up there!" the lord had shouted to him. Robin...that was his name.

While the haze of this vision was still clouding his senses, Robin heard the man's words with full clarity. Along with the message came the obvious direction. The enemy warped to the ceiling, avoiding close combat with the man in white. Hoping to catch the enemy off guard, Robin summoned a spell creating a searing fireball in the palm of his hands. Launching the flame at the enemy proved futile as he simply warped away from that attack as well.

Robin and the man stood back to back, waiting for their enemy to reveal himself. Eyeing every corner, the man in black couldn't be found but his presence could definitely be felt. Their enemy laughed at their inability to find him, finding humor in the fact that the ultimate test of light versus dark had been relegated to a simple child's game of hide and seek.

"Hahaha! DIE!" the enemy shouted as he revealed himself in the blindspot of Robin and the man in white. What Robin didn't expect out of himself was his reaction time to the enemy's attack. Immediately sending another fireball at the fatal attack coming their way. The two orbs of magic collided, creating a smokescreen that consumed the entire room for a few moments. When the smoke cleared all combatants were unscathed, the man in black no longer being amused with this battle.

"You were created for a grand purpose Robin! Greater than any man! A god!" he yelled. Robin felt a wave of anger rush over him.

"I'm going to end you Validar!" he screamed. So that was this man's name.

"After everything you've done, everything you're planning to do, we're finishing this now!"

Robin tossed his fire tome, revealed a new one with green detailing, and took out a javelin with some kind of curved engraving at the tip. It occurred to him that physical items were becoming things Robin knew nothing about the origins of. Robin felt no need to read the tome in order to use the spell as there was some kind of muscle memory connection he had with this spell.

"Elwind!" he shouted, summoning gusts of wind that flung Validar towards him.

Robin tossed the tome away and readied his javelin, preparing for the man coming at him. Validar was skewered onto the weapon with more than half of the javelin sticking out of his back. Robin removed his grasp on the javelin and stepped back from the evil man. Validar had a face of utter shock. Shock that transitioned into pain, and then pain that finally transitioned into rage.

"Why you-" Validar interrupted this thought, carefully deciding his final words.

"This isn't over. It will _never_ be over. You... and your descendants… will live in the world created by the Fell Dragon. Damn you… both…" Validar collapsed to the ground.

Robin walked over to Validar's body, stopped only to take in the image of Validar's motionless body in a pool of his own blood, and tore the javelin out. The man in white approached from behind and placed his palm on Robin's shoulder.

"Good riddance…" he announced.

Turning towards Robin he continued to list off the good things that would come from Validar's demise and walked towards where a jeweled shield was placed. Robin felt some relief as well, but it was suddenly replaced. The rage he felt towards Validar had returned, but now it wasn't directed towards the recently deceased. The man in white was a brand new problem, he felt annoyance and disgust towards him. Robin readied the blood stained javelin and walked to the man. By the time he had turned around, Robin was already midway in thrusting the javelin into his chest.

"Wha-" the man looked at Robin with shock. Shock that transitioned into pain, and then pain that finally transitioned into sadness.

"But I thought…" he gasped before collapsing to the ground.

The rage Robin was under had left and now that he had full control of himself, he realized the atrocious crime he had committed.

"Oh gods, CHROM!" Another name revealed.

Robin rushed to the side of his impaled friend. He swiftly removed the javelin out of Chrom's chest and searched for a tome that could cauterize the wound while expressing apologies over and over for his betrayal. Chrom reached out to the frantic Robin.

"This isn't your fault." Robin placed the hand away and continued to search.

"It is Chrom! This is all my fault! I should have known killing him wasn't enough!" He was panicking despite his importance being yet another mystery to Robin. There was nothing he had that could save the man. No fire tomes to cauterize the wound, no vulneraries to stabilize the wound, and nowhere close to any healers.

"Robin…", Chrom gripped his arm. "This is not... your fault. Promise me that... that you'll continue to fight. For everyone in the world. For everyone...we cared about. Please, promise me that." Robin stared at Chrom with no answer.

"I want to promise you that. But how can I fight this alone? This was our last hope, our last chance!" Chrom let go of his grip Robin's arm and looked blankly into the ceiling.

"If at first we don't succeed... just try… again…" Chrom exhaled, closing his eyes, before he finally stopped moving.

"Chrom? CHROM?! Don't die on me! I need you, I can't do this alone!" Robin continued to shake his motionless friend. Tears welled up in his eyes.

"What about Lucina? What am I supposed to do?! Chrom?! Chrom wake up! Please! CHROM!"

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"-he was doing?"

"Who knows. There's better places to take a nap than on the ground."

"All we ever sleep on is the ground!"

"Actually Lissa we-"

Robin's eyes gradually fluttered open. Two people stood above him, one was a girl in a yellow frilled dress with blond hair put up into two pigtails. The other person was man with short blue hair and a white cape.

"Hey there sleepyhead!" exclaimed the blond haired girl. The blue haired man extended his arm.

"I see you're awake now. You shouldn't be sleeping on the ground you know. Give me your hand."

Robin took the man's hand and was pulled onto his feet with great strength. After getting his footing Robin swiped off the grass and dirt that covered his cloak.

"What were you doing laying out in the open like that?" the man inquired.

"Uh... I'm not exactly sure. I don't really even know where I am."

"Do you remember where you were last?"

"No, I don't."

"Well you're currently near the border between Ylisse and Plegia. Is your town close by?"

"I...I don't actually remember that either." Robin looked at his surroundings, taking in the lush forest next to them and the flower specked grass and then back at his two new acquaintances.

"To be perfectly honest I don't remember anything beyond my own name." Robin could see the suspicion in their eyes as the two glanced at one another.

Robin felt his own eyes wince at knowing what he had just told this man. What person in their right mind would believe that someone totally unharmed would also happen to have full amnesia? It'd be one thing if he couldn't remember a night or even a full day, nothing from since the day he was born? Robin guessed that he was probably in his mid twenties. Whether it was to see how far this rabbit hole went or just genuine curiosity, Chrom decided to investigate Robin further.

"Well then, let's see if you can remember basic things. What is your name?"

"My name is Robin."

"Quick to remember that one, good."

"Guess it just came to me." Robin smiled shyly, trying to avoid scrutiny for remembering _something_. He felt the vision he witnessed before being woken up was something best to be brought up when Chrom trusted him enough to not see it as a metaphorical death threat. So likely never again.

"What is your name?" Robin asked.

"I'm Chrom. The delicate one over there is my sister Lissa."

Lissa's brow furrowed. "I am NOT delicate!", Chrom laughed at his tease. He then refocused his attention to Robin.

"We hail from the kingdom of Ylisse, currently under the leadership of the Exalt Emmeryn. My sister and I, along with a few others, are a part of Ylisse's defense force. We call ourselves the Shepherds."

"The Shepherds? Ylisse has a defense force dedicated to protecting sheep?" This question, along with Robin's bewildered face, was enough to make Chrom laugh loudly.

"I guess you could say that. It's just our 'sheep' happen to be the halidom's people. There also happens to be a lot of them." Chrom walked past Robin and pointed to a nearby dirt path.

"We've been patrolling this area for a few days now. Currently tensions between Ylisse and our western neighbors Plegia are rising. We've been getting more and more reports of incidents caused by bandits near the border and they almost always include the detail of them having Plegian accents. To be quite honest, we're surprised that you weren't another casualty of these incidents when we saw you lying on the ground."

Lissa grew a wide smile on your face. "If we hadn't found you when we did any moment later and you probably would've had all of your things stolen and then some. I guess-" Lissa was interrupted by the growing sound of clanking armor.

"YOU WILL NOT HURT THEM PLEGIAN!" yelled a man charging at Robin with

a long silver spear pointed directly at him. Immediately realizing who this armored charger was referring to, Robin began sprinting to save his life.

"Robin wait- FREDERICK!" Chrom stepped in front of the charging war machine.

Frederick immediately stopped and stood above Chrom on his armored steed. Noticing the absence of clanking armor, Robin stopped his escape from certain death and moved back to the group.

Frederick jumped off his horse and immediately began questioning Chrom. "Sir, what are you doing talking with a Plegian tactician?"

Chrom grew a confused look on his face. "Hold it Fred we just met this man! What makes you so sure he's with Plegia?"

"Those robes. They are the same ones worn by Plegian military tacticians, specifically ones of the Grimleal religion."

"Maybe he got them off of one somewhere.", Chrom lifted his arms to encompass the area they were standing in. "We are on the borders after all."

Frederick ignored Chrom's words and stomped over to Robin's position. With the armor Frederick wore Robin was considerably smaller in size to the hulking mass of metal armor. And this wasn't even when he was on his horse. Federick finally stopped when he was close enough to tower over Robin striking utter fear into him.

"Show me you weapons." Frederick demanded.

Robin had no recollection of carrying weapons, however he had hardly any recollection of anything to begin with. Rather than voice his amnesia, Robin decided to start checking himself for any weapons he might've carried. Searching through pocket compartments scattered in his cloak he found a few tomes, ones for lightning and fire magic, and a sheathed sword with a lightning shaped design. Robin handed all of these over to Frederick and he immediately tossed them back to Lissa and Chrom's position.

"Remove your gloves." Robin slipped off the black silk gloves that covered his hands. First was the right glove revealing a plain hand. The second glove was removed and revealed a purple tattoo on his hand. Frederick stared at this tattoo for a moment and took a deep breath, he then looked back at Chrom

"With your permission sir I'd like to restrain this Plegian tactician."

All three of the people in the audience made a loud "What?!" in response.

"Frederick what are you saying?!" Chrom demanded.

Frederick glanced back at the tossed lightning shaped sword. "That is a Levin sword milord. Only Plegia's most distinguished and powerful military officers wield these swords as they are only bestowed by Plegia's rulers. Unless you're saying this man was able to take out a Plegian tactician with minimal effort, indicated by the fact I see no burns from his tomes on his cloak, I'd say this man is a danger to all of us! And even if this man was able to take out an elite member of Plegia's military with basic tomes, look at this mark on his hand! This is a clear cut symbol of the Grimleal!"

Chrom stayed silent for a moment and calmed himself down. He turned to look at Robin with stern and analytical eyes. "Robin, is this true? Are you a Plegian tactician?" Robin stared back at Chrom without hesitation and not a single trace of doubt in his demeanor.

"I don't know, truthfully. With all this evidence, it's likely I probably am a Plegian tactician. If it makes you feel safer I'll gladly have myself restrained. Just please help me find out who and where I am." Frederick stepped in front of Chrom after Robin's response.

"What exactly did you say you wanted?" Frederick demanded.

"To help find out who I am. I've lost my memory-" Frederick interrupted Robin with a loud chuckle.

"You cannot be serious!" Frederick looked back at Robin's face. It told him there was no jest in his words.

"Gods you are serious! A plegian tactician lost his whole memory and just so happened to lose it during one of milord's patrols? You genuinely think I'd buy a story like that?"

"Hey I've spent enough time healing to know amnesia can happen anywhere!" Lissa intervened.

"I'm sorry milady but this isn't a case of amnesia. It's a case of a pegasus shi-"

"Enough Frederick." Chrom commanded. Frederick ceased his amused demeanor and reverted back to his stoic attitude. Chrom looked sternly at Frederick.

"You trust me correct?"

"Yes milord."

"Then listen to me when I say I don't sense any deception in Robin's words. Plegian or not, I genuinely believe this man has lost his memory. What kind of Shepherds would we be to bind someone who needs our help when they've done nothing to deserve that treatment?'

Frederick stayed silent, knowing where Chrom was going with this and that arguing with him would be futile. Chrom turned back to Robin.

"You may accompany us to a nearby town. We'll figure out where you could've possibly come from and provide you with the essentials to travel there. Understood?"

Robin stared back at Chrom for a moment, stunned at his generosity. "Crystal clear."

"Good.", Chrom turned to Frederick. "Frederick go call for three horses."

"As you command." Frederick mounted his horse and proceeded to travel away from the group.

Robin didn't know what to think he was more thankful for. The fact that he had been awoken by this man and not a bandit or that he had the guts to stand up to an armored behemoth for him. He silently promised that one day he'd repay Chrom for this kindness.

Deciding it would save some time and energy on the horses, Chrom decided to have the three travel in the same direction as Frederick to lessen the meetup distance between them. They walked in awkward silence, each contemplating of what had just transpired and what to do further. Chrom knew not to trust every soul he came across, especially now that Plegia sought to instigate a war and assassinating a prince of Ylisse was one sure way of doing it, but he always felt he had a knack for telling when a person was lying or when they were telling the truth.

Everything lined up for Robin to be a Plegian tactician, even one of the Grimleal religion, yet that could also be an avenue that would perfectly explain his amnesia. Perhaps one of his rituals backfired or he was exiled from their religion. Whatever the case, Chrom was determined to help Robin in any way he could.

"CHROM!" Lissa yelled. Alerted by his sister's scream, Chrom followed the direction Lissa was pointing towards. In the distance red hues were glowing from buildings and smoke had started to fill the sky. A town was completely on fire.

"Dammit! They're burning a whole town!" Chrom motioned to Lissa, "Come on Lissa!"

"What about Robin?"

"Unless he's on fire as well he can stay here and wait for us."

Lissa nodded and the two took off. Robin was taken back by the sudden willingness to go help a town that was in shambles with hardly anyone left to save, if any. Inspired by this, Robin ignored any kind of self preservating notion to stay behind and ran after them.

Upon reaching the town and walking to a nearby street market, Robin saw that the damage was noticeably less severe than it had appeared from far away. What had looked like a town engulfed in flames was actually a supply depot that had clearly been sabotaged and the radius of the fire was only enough to engulf nearby buildings. Attempts to start fires in other buildings had clearly been made as some of the structures elsewhere in the town were spewing smoke out of their windows and doors but showed no signs of an active fire.

Relieved by this revelation, Robin began scanning the area around him for any sign of Chrom and Lissa, the two had quite easily outran him and Robin wasn't exactly the fastest thing alive. As he turned his body to scan a few more alleyways he noticed a man standing a few yards away from him. He looked at his face, he had ragged red hair and a long scar across the side of his face. His upper chest was completely exposed, only wearing ragged pants and the pelt of some large animal on his back. If the savage clothing wasn't enough of an indicator that this man was probably not a local, the spinning axe flying right towards his head sure was.

Robin rolled to a nearby fruit stand, one with fresh fruit still in baskets and also one that he'd have to revisit considering he hadn't eaten anything since he woke up and Gods only know how long he must've been without food even prior to that. Maybe that melon there would be a good- FOCUS! Robin snapped himself out of his hunger induced trance and refocused on the current situation. Some half naked mad man wearing an animal pelt was trying to kill him with hand axes. So what could he do? Robin's weapons had been confiscated by Frederick, hand axes only have one use, it was unlikely that the one that flew at him was the brigand's last axe. So no weapons to fight back with. The only thing around him were- MELONS!

He quickly grabbed the box of melons and took one into his right hand. He poked it a few inches out of cover as a test to see how fast and how accurate this man was.

One…

Two…

Three…

FWOOSH!

The melon was still in his hand, only now it has cleanly cut in half. Though this man's aim was spot on, three seconds was enough time to constantly throw fruit at him and keep Robin's own head from looking like the melon slices still in his palm.

"Come out ya white haired freak!" the bandit taunted. "Yer just wastin' my axes and I wanna use them on somethin' more... pressing."

That had to mean Chrom, in all the time formulating a plan to escape the bandit, he hadn't thought about what he should do once he lost the man. Should he escape the village? Would Chom need his help? Surely he wouldn't have been killed by bandits, especially ones that could be distracted with fruit, right? The man continued to taunt Robin and his voice grew louder, he was coming towards him. Now was the time to strike.

Just before emerging with a basket full of melons, Robin noticed that there was a small set of steps between the market street Robin was in and the alley the bandit appeared from. Tripping on these would only cause an infant to have some bruises, but injuries wasn't what he was looking for. If he could surprise the bandit with one fruit to the face... Just as the bandit placed his foot on the first step, Robin slugged a melon right at the man's face. The bandit had no idea that Robin would have fought back, as scrawny as he was, and especially not with fruit of all things. The melon smashed into his face and caused the bandit to trip on the steps, just enough time to get away! By the time the bandit had recovered from his fall, Robin had already sprinted down several alleyways. His boss was not going to be happy about this.

Robin kept sprinting down randomly chosen alleyways in directions that lead away from the market street until he found a vacant building. Robin decided that running away would eventually exhaust him and leave him in more danger than he was earlier. He ducked into the building, a tavern from the looks of plates with half eaten food and half drank glasses, and hid behind a counter. He waited for several minutes, only peaking out from the counter to watch if any bandits had successfully followed him.

After enough time had passed to know it was unlikely a bandit was looking for him, Robin stood up from the counter, only to immediately see a horse and its rider standing right in front of the tavern he was in. Robin ducked back behind the counter and frantically searched for a weapon of some kind. All he could find was a metal fork, better than nothing he figured. He heard the metallic sounds of buckles being moved, the man was stepping off of his horse. Dammit, he saw him! The door squeaked as it was opened and he could hear the metallic clangs of battle armor. What good would a fork be against battle armo- Wait. What kind of bandit has a horse and battle armor alongside half naked bandits? There's no way…

"Frederick, is that you?" Robin quietly called out from behind the counter.

Within seconds he was single handedly thrown from behind the counter and onto his back. Robin's head was throbbing from slamming into the wooden floor and his vision was fuzzy. Once his eyes focused he saw a silver lance pointed directly towards his chest.

"Jeez Frederick it's me! It's Robin!"

"What have you done with them?"

"What do you mean 'what have I done with them'?"

Frederick inched the lance closer to Robin's neck, barely touching his skin. Robin then figured out exactly what Frederick was asking.

"Frederick I swear to you I did nothing to them. We were traveling in your direction when we came across this town. Chrom and Lissa ran to try and help the town and told me to stay. Considering I'm unarmed right now you'll forgive me for hiding behind a counter after escaping death by throwing melons at a half naked man throwing axes at me."

Robin stared at Frederick's face hoping to get an answer from his face depending on his reaction. Frederick merely stared with the same expression he had given him this whole time. For every second that passed by with Frederick's lance inches away from the inside of his throat, Robin felt like hours passed as he had no clue to what his one man judge and jury might decide. To his relief, Frederick removed the lance and offered his hand to Robin.

"You are either one of the worst liars in the realm or one of the luckiest men I have ever met."

"Have I finally earned some trust?" Robin inquired as he brushed off the dust from lying on the floor.

Frederick gave him that same stern stare from before.

"You will be given an opportunity to earn it.", Frederick replied. He then reached into a large bag strapped to his back and brought out a bronze sword and fire tome. "Take these. We'll need them if we are to aid my lieges."

Robin took the weapons grabbing the tome in his left hand, sword in his right hand, and stared at them. "Aren't you afraid I'll take these and use them against you?" Frederick scoffed at Robin's warning.

"Haha! I've spent my life protecting milord and his family. A plegian tactician, even with decent weapons, is far from the worst things I've ever faced." Frederick walked to the door and opened it, but stopped before he walked outside.

"Also, I need something other than me for the archers to shoot at. How can I make you a target if you don't look like a threat?" Frederick had, for the briefest moment, given Robin a look that teetered between the lines of psychotic and stern happiness. He prayed that this was just some of Chrom's teasing rubbing off on Frederick, for his own sake.

Robin walked out of the tavern and noticed that the air had become much thicker and harder to breathe within the time he had been hiding in the building. This meant several things to Robin.

The fire was much worse than he had initially thought if this much smoke was covering the town. The only reason this fire hadn't been put out yet by Chrom and Lissa meant that they weren't successful in stopping the bandits as a town this big surely would have enough supplies to stop a few burning buildings. This also meant the the people living in this town were either long gone, unlikely given the remoteness of the area making fleeing town an incredibly dangerous venture, or being held hostage which meant that they could be suffocating in a building filled with smoke this very moment. The bandits may have just flat out murdered everyone in the village which could also include Chrom. Also unlikely given that a plan to set up fires in the town meant the group wasn't large enough to take on an entire town on their own with brute strength. Hostages was the only way they could've done this much damage.

"Frederick!" He yelled. Frederick turned to Robin's face with the typical stern look he always had, now with a small bit of annoyance to it.

"What?" Frederick replied.

"Did you see any buildings that could be large enough to hold a lot of people?"

"Depends, how many people are you talking about?"

"An entire town's worth."

Frederick was silent for a moment and then, for the first time Robin had ever seen, he grinned with a non-psychopathic smile towards Robin.

"Hop onto a horse, I know exactly what you're looking for."

Robin grinned in return, finally the armored behemoth was starting to trust him. Hopefully the people they found in the building hadn't suffocated just yet and there was still time to save them. He hopped onto one of the horses Frederick had brought with him, impressed that he was able to have four horses under his control by himself.

"I'll take point. Make sure to use that tome." Frederick commanded.

"Will do."

Smoke continued to fill the streets of the town. It had occurred to Robin that perhaps that supply depot had much more flammable objects in there, maybe even oil, as any normal building couldn't cause this much smoke in a town alone. Sure enough when the two turned the corner, the once engulfed in flames supply depot was now a crumbled pile of ash and stones. Robin guessed the only reason he hadn't heard the explosion was because the adrenaline of trying to stay alive blocked it out. Nearby buildings had all been engulfed in flames and none of them were given any mercy by the fire. A nearby apothecary was spewing smoke out of its windows, an inn was completely in flames and was going to collapse in minutes, and even people's homes were starting to crumble.

What horrified Robin the most was what he saw inside some of the burning shops. Bodies of what were clearly the owners of the stores were positioned in ways that meant they had no intention of willingly giving up their stores to the bandits. The only justice he saw in these sights were that some of the stores had more than just one body and were lit with flames near the top of the body, a clear sign that at least some of the bandits went down with the store owners. Robin looked to Frederick, his horse just a few yards away, and while he could not see Frederick's face due to him looking straight forward the entire time, he noticed that the demeanor of Frederick's position on the horse meant a terrible fate was coming to these bandits in addition to what he was going to do them from whatever they did to Chrom and Lissa.

Suddenly, several small axes clinked off of Frederick's armor. They were caught in an ambush as several bandits emerged from alleyways and from behind barrels. Robin immediately counted six of them. Five were bandits like the one he had seen before, half naked, only wearing pants, and wore a beast's pelt. The other two were simple archers and appeared much less savage than the other five, wearing armored shoulder pads and actual clothing. Frederick reared his horse to stop and within seconds had charged towards bandits, silver lance at the ready, and skewered three of them in one charge. The two archers sent a volley of arrows at Frederick and, even without looking, Frederick managed to block every single arrow of of his shield. He launched his lance like a javelin at one more bandit impaling him onto a wall and brought out a glimmering axe. He glanced at the two archers, now terrified for their lives, and immediately tossed the axe at one of them. Within seconds the axe collided into one of the archers and the force of the throw was enough to send the axe through his body and stick into the ground. Frederick slowly approached the last archer, now sitting on the ground in disbelief and utterly terrified. Frederick towered over his ambusher, with an unreadable expression on his face.

"Please! Spare me! I'll never ransack a village ever again, I'll dedicate my life to helping people every day!"

The archer got no response from Frederick as he continued to approach him slowly. To cement the nail in his fate, Frederick unsheathed a silver sword.

"What kind of demon are you!" the Archer screamed.

Frederick finally towered over the man, letting him wallow in fear. He stepped off of his horse and even though he was still walking, was quick enough to get to the archer and stab the sword in his right leg. The archer screamed in pain and began to wail in fear for his life. He looked up one more time at his executioner and saw only the face of death himself glaring back at him. Frederick pulled the sword from the archer's leg and picked him up by the throat.

"You will answer my questions right now and you better hope you have the correct answers. I will know if you lie so if you do I will not hesitate to make your end the most miserable I can right now. Do you understand?"

"YES! YES I DO!"

"What did you do with the people of this town?"

"We took hostages! We used them as a way to get access to where they keep all their oil kegs. We lit that place like a bonfire!"

"Where are they now?"

"They're in the… they're in the… the…"

Frederick tightened the grip on the archer's neck.

"You have until you suffocate to tell me where these people are."

"THEY'RE IN THE BASEMENT OF THE DEPOT! WE THOUGHT...THAT IF NONE OF THEM LIVED THERE'D BE NO ONE TO HUNT US DOWN UNTIL WE WERE LONG GONE!"

Frederick slammed the archer onto the ground.

"YOU WILL TELL ME RIGHT NOW, WHERE IS PRINCE CHROM AND PRINCESS LISSA?!"

"Who…? Wait, you don't mean. Oh gods I'm so sorry!"

"WHERE ARE THEY?"

"WE PUT THEM INTO THE DEPOT AS WELL! WE HAD NO IDEA THEY WERE ROYALTY! PLEASE DON-" He was silenced as Frederick launched his metal fist into the archer's face.

Robin knew that the only way this man wasn't going to have a massive head injury is if that man had a skull made of the Earth's strongest metal. He was also stunned by the ruthless display Frederick had shown him as his mouth was open the entire time. Frederick slumped his knees to the ground in utter defeat. Robin didn't know what to do, everything in him told him to go and console the man, but he was terrified if this loss had broken the man and whether this man was an utter killing machine now. Clearly his fears weren't stronger than his need to console as he found himself only a few feet away standing behind Frederick. He could hear him sobbing.

"Frederick, I'm so sorry."

Frederick raised his head and stared forwards. There was only silence for a few moments.

"This isn't your fault, Robin." He finally broke. Robin was shocked that Frederick had finally used his name. He got back onto his knees and wiped his face before turning towards Robin.

"It was my duty and life to protect Chrom and Lissa. I failed them both. I failed the halidom. I FAILED!"

He began to walk towards the bodies of the men that he tossed his weapons at, retrieving each of them.

"I will make them pay. They took my liege, my purpose, and my honor. They will not leave this unpunished."

He turned to Robin.

"You want my trust? Help me fulfill this one last task."

Robin immediately nodded. He didn't have the attachment that Frederick had to these people, but they were the ones who showed him kindness and trust. He owed it to them and the people of this town to avenge them for what these bandits did. Before the two rode off, Robin noticed a bandit was still alive, though barely as a pool of his own blood surrounded him. Frederick took no notice of this man so Robin decided before death claimed him, in the form of a lance or blood loss, he would get one last thing out of him.

"Where is your leader?" he demanded. The bandit merely glanced at Robin and furrowed his brows. He spat in his face with blood. Robin wiped the blood off of his face and brought out his tome.

"You see this book? It is a fire tome. If you don't tell me where he is right now, I will use this to cauterize that wound of yours and then stab into you again with this sword.", Robin unsheathed his bronze blade. "I will then close the wound again with this thing in you, melted and seared to your organs. If you tell me right now where your leader is I will make sure to cauterize your wound and you might live to see another day."

The bandit ended his angered look at Robin, replaced with one of utter exhaustion and defeat.

"He's in the street market. Y'know the one, where you threw those melons at me."

Before Robin could say anything else, the bandit fainted. Robin didn't have any medical expertise to say if the man had died or not, but just to make sure he kept his end of the bargain, he cauterized the bandit's wound and left him some vulnerary in the event he was still alive. It was strange to be the one possibly saving the life of your attempted murderer.

"Hurry it up lads! This fire isn't going to stop just for us!", the bandit leader ordered.

"Yeah, set the city on fire, that'll be a great idea. Just forget the part where we are in the town _during_ the fire.", a lackey quietly quipped carrying a large basket of melons to a nearby cart.

The bandit leader sharply turned directly towards the back talker.

"What did you just say?"

The lackey was screwed. How the hell did he hear him?

"Nothing sir. I said nothing."

"Really? Are you saying I'm deaf? I certainly heard you say somethin'. I don't take too kindly to insults." The leader stomped towards him.

"I'll ask again, what did you just say?"

"... I said KNIGHT!" the bandit screamed, dropping his melons and sprinting away.

"What the-" the leader was interrupted as he saw a silver lance fly past his head, grazing his cheek, and impaling the bandit that had been back talking him. He looked back in the direction where the lance had come from. There, standing at the other end of the market street, was a man clad in armor atop an armored horse. The blocked sunlight casted a shadow onto the knight and some would have called this sight as seeing the manifestation of death itself.

"I thought we killed everyone!"

"WE DID! He must've come after that blue haired guy!"

The bandit looked back at the knight, who was now slowly approaching him. The bandit leader had no idea what to do but surely this knight couldn't single handedly take everyone on, right?"

"Do you have any idea who I am? I am Garrick, the leader of one of the biggest-" He didn't have time to finish as an axe smashed into a mage next to him. After the dust settled he saw his worst fear. This knight was midway into slaughtering his men. Every attack they threw at him either bounced off of his armor or was swiftly dodged _by the horse_. Crap, he needed an outing fast. He darted his eyes around, looking for something when he finally found what he was looking for. There was a man in a black cloak casting weak spells and, the best part, had a bronze sword with him. This easy of a hostage was practically a blessing from some benevolent god.

After Frederick finished off the last of the bandits, he turned to the final target he'd been saving for last. He did find the leader, but was caught off guard by what he had with him.

"Throw your sword down or the mage gets it!" Garrick demanded.

"Don't worry about me Frederick! Kill him!"

"Shut it before I carve your mouth off!"

Robin ignored him.

"If he gets away he is going to do this again! Kill him!"

"That's it!" Garrick pushed Robin to the ground and stabbed his leg. Robin yelled in pain and was pulled back into an armlock to continue his role as a body shield.

Frederick dawned the stern look he always had but there was something new about it. Rather than staring with intent, his eyes were constantly shifting between Robin and Garrick. What he did next shocked Robin. Frederick dropped his sword and stepped back away from the two.

"Good. You stupid Ylissean!" the bandit yelled as he stabbed Robin through the chest.

Frederick could only stare at what was happening before him. Failure again. What could he return to now? What would Ylisse do in response to his failure? An entire town lost, an impaired man killed in front of him, the Exalt's siblings murdered. He began to imagine places he'd have to go to when after he would surely be exiled from Ylisse, but was interrupted when he heard Garrick scream.

"There's no way! I killed you!"

"You made a mistake trying to kill me. Now I'm angry" Chrom yelled as he thrusted his sword into Garrick's chest. Garrick coughed up blood.

"Ylissean...scum!" Garick sputtered as his final words. Chrom then kicked Garrick's body out of the sword after his body went limp. He turned to see Frederick staring at him in awe, clearly relieved he was alive, and then saw a man in white hair passed out with blood streaming from his chest.

"Robin! Lissa go help him!" he commanded. Like emerging from the clutches of death, Lissa appeared from behind Chrom and ran past him to heal Robin. Frederick was stunned. Nearly the entirety of the dread and guilt he was feeling had been lifted at this revelation.

"Lord Chrom you're alive! I thought you were both dead!"

"You don't give me enough credit Fred. Com'on, we'll catch up on things later, right now we need to get Robin out of here while we can still save him!"

"As you command my liege!" Frederick replied and then whistled the horses he had brought with him.

"Hang in there Robin, don't die on me just yet."

Robin awoke in a new area with a massive headache. He could smell the grass so they were still outside. He was in a tent, clearly makeshift as it was only lit by a single lantern. He then noticed he had guests. To his left Lissa and Chrom were asleep, Lissa practically snoring. He nearly screamed when he looked to his right at the armor behemoth known as Frederick was also there. Unlike Chrom and Lissa however, Frederick was wide awake.

"I see you're awake now." He stated.

"How long have I been out?"

"You've been asleep for three days now. Falling in and out of consciousness."

"Gods, what happened?" Robin asked, and then noted that Chrom and Lissa weren't dead. "How are they…?"

"Lord Chrom and Lady Lissa willingly let themselves get captured. That was their plan to find the townspeople as fast as possible. While you and I were searching for them, the entire townspeople had escaped with their help."

Robin breathed a sigh of relief. Please don't be another weird dream, he thought to himself. He knew he was already incredibly lucky to be found by the Shepherds and hoped this wasn't a false continuation of his luck. His stomach then growled and it dawned on him that he likely had barely eaten anything in the past couple of days.

"Frederick I don't mean to inconvenience you, but please tell me you guys have something to eat."

He grinned with that psychotic grin that only meant trouble was coming his way.

"We have something, stay right there."

Frederick exited the tent and left Robin for only a few moments, when he came back he had some kind of kabobed meat stick.

"Fresh bear meat, hunted from yours truly."

It smelt utterly disgusting but as someone who had barely eaten, anything was better than nothing at all. He took a bite out of the meat, and it was the best tasting bear he had ever eaten.


	2. Chapter 2

Energy was so fascinating, Robin thought. Whether it was the countless forms it could take or the methods of transformation themselves, he believed the study of energy was similar to how astronomers studied the stars above him. Over centuries they made assumption after assumption about the lights in the sky, and each one of them were sure they had solved the mystery of their existence, yet it only took a new approach by some genius to change everything they thought about the field.

From rubbing sticks and stones to tapping into mystical literature, energy conversion was a mystery in its own right. Just by looking at the crackling fire before him, he could note several examples of energy conversion. The smoke, the flying embers, the charred wood, and, of course, the fire itself were all the results of transformed energy. If fire could be created through the energy of friction, then how can it also be created by books? What kind of energy within a person is changed through the use of these books? How do these words tap into that energy? Was the energy of friction inherently different from the energy the books tapped into? If they were different energies then how could the two produce the same result?

Robin hoped that answers to these questions were already discovered by scholars of this field and perhaps, one of them wrote a book for the world to know as well. Otherwise, he may have just found a field to pursue in the future.

"You alright there Robin?" Chrom asked worriedly. Robin shook off his entranced stare at the fire and looked back at him.

"I'm fine, just thinking about things."

"You sure?"Chrom asked, raising his eyebrows in suspicion. "Lissa may have patched you up, but that doesn't mean you should pretend to feel fine if you really don't. You did get stabbed you know."

"I'm fine Chrom." Robin stated with a slightly raised voice. Chrom looked away from Robin and stared back at the fire. He regretted raising his voice like that immediately.

"Damn it, I'm sorry. I didn't mean-"

"It's alright," Chrom interrupted and then making a small laugh. "I think some of 'Frederick the Wary' is starting to rub off on me." Chrom reached over and patted Robin on the back. "Trust me when I say your reaction to worry is nothing compared to some of the ways me and Lissa have responded to that man's care. I still have no idea why he never snapped at us after everything we've done and said to him."

The two starred awkwardly in silence at the fire. The silence lasted for several moments until it was broken by Robin connecting dots with some of the things Frederick had said earlier.

"Chrom, can I ask you something?"

"Go ahead."

"Back at the town, Frederick kept talking about how he's been protecting you and Lissa your entire lives as well as straight up calling you guys royalty. Are you really…?"

* * *

Chrom sighed. "Yeah, we are. The Exalt of Ylisse is Lissa and I's older sister."

Before Robin could get on his knees to pay respects to the person in front of him, Chrom held up a hand.

"No need for the formalities, I've never been a fan of them. Lissa isn't either." Robin sighed with relief and sat back down next to the fire.

"Explains why Frederick takes orders from you. I figured it was because you had some kind of blackmail on him or something."

Chrom laughed. "If anyone is getting anything on Frederick, it's himself giving it to me. He's dedicated to the fullest meaning of the word."

"How long have you known each other?" Robin asked. Chrom sat back with a nostalgic look on his face.

"Gods, how long has it been? I think ever since Emm became Exalt. She was the one who appointed him to us."

"How long ago was that?"

"About thirteen years. It's funny remembering how much he towered over her at that age."

"How old was she?"

"Around fifteen if I'm remembering correctly."

"FIFTEEN YEARS?!" Robin exclaimed. "Your sister became a ruler of a kingdom as a child?" When the question left his words, a solemn look dawned on Chrom's face. Again, Robin regretted his words.

"Sorry, you don't have say anything if that's too personal."

"Ah, don't feel bad. I'd rather not go into detail about why she became Exalt at such an early age, but I will say you aren't the only one who felt shock at her becoming an Exalt at that age. Somehow she was able to get past all the horrible slander and mend a war-torn country. As a child, I can't imagine how quickly she had to mature for all that." Chrom looked back at the fire, remembering all the things he heard about her sister. All of the threats he heard people say, murder being one of the lighter threats.

"There wasn't even anyone around to guide her. Everyone that aided our father in ruling Ylisse was killed during the war. She figured out how to rule a kingdom all on her own. I couldn't be more proud of calling her my sister."

The two starred silently at the fire once again. Robin reflected on the idea of a child ruling a kingdom and how much stress that could be on one. It was truly impressive that she hadn't succumbed to stress, and even managed to end a war. Perhaps her being so young was the reason.

"I think it's time we get some sleep. We'll need to return to Ylisse before tomorrow evening and we'll need the rest."

With that, Chrom rested his head to the ground and shut his eyes. Robin glanced around the quiet forest around him, dimly lit by the glow of the fire, and proceeded to fall asleep as well.

* * *

"No mister bear…. that's not your son… please don't make me smell the bear... the boot smelt better... Agh! Blech! Ptooey!" Lissa woke up suddenly, swallowing a bug that flew in her mouth while she was sleep talking.

Darn you nature, Lissa thought, proceeding to sit up and look around. It was still the middle of the night, evident by the gleaming stars, the glowing moon, and the black night sky. Robin and Frederick were both sound asleep, probably because of each other's huge anxiety inducing events from yesterday, and snoring quite loudly. She felt Robin's snoring was funny for a man as seemingly reserved as he was, but felt sad about Frederick's snoring. She knew that Frederick only slept this way when something worried him immensely the day earlier and drained so much energy out of him. Poor guy must've felt destroyed when he thought she and Chrom had perished in the town.

She then turned to see where Chrom was asleep, but she didn't find him sleeping. Instead, she saw Chrom up and awake standing directly in front of where the forest grew the darkest.

"Chrom?"

"Shh!" he snapped. Lissa was taken back by the sharpness of his demand. Before she could scold him for shushing her like that, she began to notice a strange rumbling sound from the direction of where Chrom was facing. She slowly walked to Chrom's side and stared into the forest as he was. The sound was steadily growing, getting louder and louder with each passing second. Eventually it had grown so much that she could feel the ground beneath her shaking as pebbles began to move. A crack then shot through the ground between them with lightning speed. The crack grew into another dark corner of the forest and the ground proceeded to shake violently, finally culminating into the ground beginning to split from the crack.

Lissa jumped over to Chrom's side of the crack before it grew too wide and stared in awe as the crack grew wider. They noticed the two absent members of their group and began to worry about Robin and Frederick when suddenly they heard the cries of a horse, hooves against the ground, and the faint clanking of armor. That was enough of an indicator to stop worrying about Robin and Frederick and to start worrying about themselves. It was almost as if some malevolent deity was listening to their thoughts, as magma erupted from the crack and shot high up into the air.

"Run!" Chrom yelled.

The two darted away from the wall of magma, sprinting past countless trees. Twigs and branches scratched their faces as they sprinted. Ground began to shift in all directions from the quake, forcing them to take sharp corners that only grew more dangerous as magma began falling from the sky. The once plain land had become disfigured into a short range of mountains and cliffs from the eruption and birds escaped in herds from the trees as they either fell to the ground or caught fire from the magma. Adrenaline carried the siblings as they ran through the changing forest, following the darkness for direction away from the fire.

Eventually they found a wide clearing that was seemingly untouched by the falling magma and took it upon themselves to finally rest. When they examined the woods behind them, the once raging fires had become a soft and distant orange glow. Chrom exhaled loudly, tried to catch his breath, and placed his hands on his knees. He then looked up to see what exactly was in this clearing. They had found an ancient battlefield littered with broken arrows, abandoned forts, and rusted weapons and armor. Chrom knew that this battlefield was nearby but also knew it took around an hour to travel here from the area they had stopped at. Chrom was impressed by his and Lissa's own athletic ability to run all the way here in what felt like a few minutes. What a lucky break.

"Chrom what is that?!" Lissa yelled, pointing to the sky.

Of course there's something here, Chrom thought.

Chrom looked to see what exactly she was pointing at and saw that specks of energy were forming into something in the sky. The energy stopped forming for a second to allow some kind of blue eye surrounded by strange symbols to literally blink into existence. Although the eye was fairly high in the sky making it hard to see any small details, he could notice two humanoid objects emerging from it. Once enough of the bodies had emerged from the eye, their weight carried them the rest of the way through slamming them into the ground.

Lissa and Chrom waited to see if the bodies would get up or make a noise. Anything to tell them if the bodies were alive.

Nothing.

Not a single sign of movement or even a snapping of a twig. It was then that Chrom noticed everything was silent. The rumbling sound from the earthquake was gone. The sound of magma hitting the ground was gone. The sound of trees burning and crackling was gone. Even the sounds of nature being disturbed were gone. There was just complete and utter silence.

"Stay here." Chrom ordered, unsheathing his blade and stepping carefully towards where the bodies had landed.

As he crept towards them, he noticed that the eye seemed to stare blankly in his direction. He stared back at the eye and then started to notice a burning hallway in the pupil. Suddenly, he started to hear the harsh cracking of bones coming from where the bodies had fallen causing him to snap his attention back to the bodies. Bushes far away from him began to shake. Chrom gripped his sword tighter, preparing for anything that might emerge. What emerged from the bushes was horrifying. The bodies had began to stand up and while doing so, were unnaturally repositioning bones that had been broken or shifted from their fall. Once they stood up he saw exactly what kind of horror had come from the eye. These bodies were made of rotten skin and had masks made of their skin stitched to their faces as a black gas poured out of their permanently agape mouths. Their eyes were completely black, hollow even, with a bright red pupil glowing out of their sockets. Suddenly, one of the two bodies made a screech that was a combination of a roar and a muffled exhaled. It then started to charge towards him with an axe raised to attack.

Chrom readied himself as the creature lunged itself at him. He leaned to the right and slashed his sword right through the creature. What he didn't expect was to hear more bones crunching and shifting as the creature's head spun back at him in a way that would break any normal person's neck. He was momentarily caught off guard by this and barely managed to block the creature's axe as it swung behind him. The two fought to push each other off-balance though luckily it was Chrom who had the greater strength. He swung his sword away causing the creature to lose its balance for a moment which was enough time for him to shove the creature to the ground. He didn't take a moment of hesitation to bring his sword right through the head of creature, which then made its very first cry of pain before dissolving into a purple smoke.

Lissa was backed into a tree by the second corpse, who had used its partner as a distraction for Chrom. Normally a healer such as herself would be defenseless against this kind of situation, but luckily for Lissa she grew up in a world where zombies appearing out of freaky eye portals wasn't the only time someone or something was trying to kill her. Just when the creature believed there was nowhere for Lissa to go, it raised its axe to deliver the fatal blow, only to be greeted by an axe to the chest. What people never guessed about Lissa was that she used her stereotypical weakness as her own bait. The trap? Her stave had a dual function of an axe that, when activated, two axe blades would emerge out of hidden compartments at the top of the stave.

Lissa tore through the rest of the body and split the creature in two. The two halves then dissipated into smoke before they could even touch the ground.

"Who's delicate now!" she taunted.

"LISSA BEHIND YOU!" Chrom yelled.

Before Lissa could react she felt a sharp pain in her back. Lissa fell to the ground, felt the axe in her back slip out, and unfortunately she lost her grip on her stave from the surprise attack. The pain was too much for Lissa to bear and she couldn't do anything except to try to crawl away. Then a second axe tore into her back. During their fight with these creatures several more had been silently emerging from the eye.

"LISSA!" Chrom screamed. Just as he began to sprint to save his sister, two more creatures emerged from hiding to keep Chrom from helping her.

"DAMN YOU!" he yelled, thrusting his sword into one of the creature's heads, immediately killing it. The other creature took this opportunity to swing its axe at Chrom's head, who barely saved his life by blocking the attack with his exposed arm. The axe dug itself into his arm, causing Chrom to yell in pain. He stumbled down from the axe causing it to tear out of his arm. Blood began to stream out of the wound and it stung sharply. He then heard his sister scream in terror. He closed his eyes, preparing for the sound that would mark the end of his sister's life.

What Chrom didn't expect, was the sound of the creature roaring in pain and another sound of metal clashing with metal. Chrom looked up to see all of the creatures being preoccupied with three warriors that had come from out of nowhere.

The creature that had attacked Lissa was already in the process of being transformed into smoke after a man dressed in a yellow tunic and had short blonde hair was holding a sword that indicated he had stabbed it through the chest. The creatures that had attacked him were being dealt with by a swordsman dressed in blue clothes, a cape, and was wearing a mask. The various other ones that were strung about the area were being killed by another swordswoman with scarlet hair. This one was especially skilled as she also used a decorated javelin to take out enemies out of her reach while also using a sword to kill creatures near her. Within a few seconds all the creatures had been taken care of by these mysterious rescuers.

The man in blue pointed at the man in yellow, directing him towards Lissa and then did the same to the red-haired woman but towards Chrom. She approached him silently and showed little expression on her face. She crouched down to him and offered him a sack of vulnerary.

"Use it." she commanded.

Chrom gratefully took the ointment and smothered it over his arm. The wound began to close almost immediately and Chrom began to feel energy rush back to him. The woman who gave him the vulnerary watched until it the wound had disappeared and then quickly walked away. Although he felt life coming back to him, Chrom was still weak from the lost blood and was unable to ask the woman what her name was, or even to say thanks for saving his life. Instead he turned to where Lissa was and was relieved to see her resting against a tree, breathing.

The three strangers regrouped together and began to converse quietly with one another. After a few moments all three of them nodded, the blonde man patting the shoulders of the other two, and all three started walking in separate directions. The blue haired man began walking towards Chrom and stopped right in front of him and crouched down.

"Who...who are you?" Chrom asked. The blue haired man ignored his question.

"What just happened was but a prelude of what's to come. Know that there are forces outside of natural law that are trying to destroy you and the world. Keep yourself and the Fire Emblem safe, and do not trust your closest friend."

"...What the hell are you talking about?"

The blue haired man simply stood up and walked away. Before he disappeared into the darkness of the forest, he turned back one last time to Chrom.

"You may call me Marth." the masked man said, before disappearing into the woods.

Chrom slouched back onto the tree, trying to fully grasp what had just happened. What kind of nonsense could this person be talking about? Keep the Fire Emblem safe? The jewels had been scattered across the land, the shield was hardly anything more than a family heirloom from the days of the hero king. Speaking of, why would they call themselves by the same name as the hero king? Nobody had used that name out of sheer respect for the man. The parents who named that man must've been some major egotistical freaks to do that. Chrom shook his head and tried to focus on the current situation. He and Lissa were in major danger if any more of those creatures came out from the portal and they were in no condition to fight anymore of them. There was also the fact that they hadn't seen or heard Robin and Frederick since the eruption.

Chrom forced himself up, using his sword as a makeshift crutch, and slumped over to where Lissa was resting, picking up her stave along the way. Gods, if anymore of those things were going to come from that eye, he prayed that Frederick and Robin would miraculously appear from out of nowhere like 'Marth' had.

* * *

"ROBIN GET UP!" Frederick yelled.

Robin shot up from the ground and prepared for the worst, and he got it for once. He and Frederick were surrounded by a red glow that only grew brighter towards the giant wall of magma erupting from the ground.

Frederick swiftly climbed onto his horse and rode towards Robin, commanding him to get on with him. Robin obeyed the order without question and with a yell from Frederick and a neigh from the horse, they were galloping away from the wall of fire.

As they rode, Robin couldn't help but notice the absence of two key members of their group.

"What the heck is going on?! Where's Chrom and Lissa?"

"I don't know", Frederick yelled, focused on the path ahead of him. "I awoke to that massive wall of fire emerging and they weren't sleeping in their places when I woke up. I pray that means they went for a walk before this all started."

Assured by this statement, Robin began to analyze the situation they were in.

"So how are we going to get out of this?"

"There's an old battlefield with some abandoned forts not too far away from here but it should be far enough to escape the raining fire. I pray milord has ventured there to seek shelter from this disaster."

"I hope so as well Frederi-"

Suddenly the two were thrown of the horse as it reared on it's hind legs. Frederick immediately got back up and offered a hand to Robin, coughing up dirt from his fall. It didn't take long for the two of them to see the dozens of red orbs glowing at them from the darkness of the forest. Frederick took out a silver sword and handed a large bag to Robin. Without hesitation, Robin opened the bag to find a sword shaped like a lightning bolt and several tomes. He was momentarily stunned by this. Frederick really trusted him enough to give him back all of his dangerous weapons?

Robin was snapped back to the current issue as he heard metal striking metal. Already Frederick had engaged the red orbs, only now they weren't just orbs. They were the eyes of walking corpses signified by their rotten skin and the gaping wounds on most of them. Robin was taken back by these creatures. The dead now risen? Robin still had a decent knowledge of tomes despite the memory loss, but knew nothing of tomes that could summon literal zombies. It was then he noticed that the faces of these creatures were the same.

Were they just evil creations? If so, why was there so much unique detail in their design with emulating a real corpse? He then noticed the stitching at the edge of their faces. Somebody had stitched masks onto these bodies. He knew little about magic beyond what could be done with tomes, but he figured that, just like the multiple ways to create fire, there must be multiple ways to use magic. It was just a hunch, but it felt like the masks were the reason these bodies were walking once again. Robin began to think about collecting the mask off of one of the bodies but was stopped by seeing what happened to them when Frederick lopped off the head of one of them with his axe. The entire body and it's head evaporated into a puff of purple smoke. Great, he thought. Now if he wanted to study one of these things he'd have to capture them alive.

"Help me fight these things off!" Frederick yelled, noticing that for a few minutes Robin had merely been staring at the undead like a child watching a play for the first time.

Robin snapped out of his studying gaze and looked back into the sack of weapons Frederick had given him. He grabbed the Levin sword and a green tome with 'Elwind' marked onto the front cover. Robin charged to Frederick while simultaneously flipping through the tome he had with him.

Frederick slugged an axe into the chest of one of the zombies with enough force that not only put the axe through the creature, but also sent it through a tree. The falling timber then crushed another corpse. Frederick sprinted to where the axe had finally stopped, which was buried a few inches into an incredibly thick tree, while slashing at any other corpses that tried to stop him. Once he reached the axe, Frederick tossed his sword upwards and began to pull his axe out of the tree.

Unknown to him, a corpse was starting to sneak up behind him. It quietly stepped towards Frederick gaining a feet on him with every step. Once it was right behind him, it raised its axe to end Frederick, only for the sword he tossed to stab right through the creature's chest. As if on cue, Frederick finally tore the axe out of the tree, which took so much effort that when it finally released he was swung around by the force and ended up decapitating the corpse that tried to kill him. Sheathing his sword and gripping both hands onto the axe, Frederick tried to find Robin. Coincidentally enough, Robin seemed to be having just as much enthusiasm with killing these creatures.

When Robin found out that the Levin sword wasn't lightning shaped just for artistic reasons and actually summoned literal lightning he couldn't help himself from experimenting with how many ways he could use this along with Elwind. There was a lake nearby.

"Elwind!" he shouted, sending several corpses into the lake. He then pointed the sword to the sky and summoned a lightning strike into the water, immediately electrocuting them. Their bodies spasmed with the sheer energy going through their bodies, only stopping when it was time for them to disappear into the purple gas that signaled their end.

They all wore metal helmets.

"Elwind!" he shouted again, this time bringing in four of them right by each other. Robin pointed his Levin sword right at one of the creatures and as expected, lighting shot down onto the helmet of the creature. Electricity ran through their helmets as a circuit of death, as it electrocuted their heads.

Who knew death by conductivity could be so much fun, Robin sadistically thought with a crazed grin on his face. He then realized he'd probably need to tone it down just a bit as a sadistic murdered wasn't something he'd want to be known as. Unfortunately for him, it appeared that Frederick had watched his little lightning show the whole time. Before Robin could explain himself for getting carried away, Frederick simply raised a hand to silence him. He then motioned to the trees behind him, or lack there of, as even though there were no bodies to show for, the sheer damage to the forest was enough to display Frederick's own performance of death as several trees had been cleanly cut down and there were several dirt mounds from where axes slammed into the ground.

Frederick walked up to Robin, grinning slightly. Once he was right up to him, Frederick patted Robin on the shoulder.

"What happens on the battlefield, stays on the battlefield. Agreed?"

Robin slowly nodded.

"Good. Now we should start searching for-" Frederick, started, before he was interrupted by a loud scream. His eyes widened almost immediately.

"LADY LISSA!" Frederick yelled, storming off into the direction of the scream.

"Frederick wait- Gaaah!" Robin threw up his arms and ran over to Frederick's horse, which surprisingly let him on without any struggle.

"He must do this a lot." he told the horse. Almost as if it understood what Robin had said, the horse snorted in response. Robin tapped the side of the horse with his feet to signal the horse and within seconds they were after Frederick.

"YOU WILL NOT HARM THEM FOUL CREATURES!" Frederick yelled as he stormed out of the forest and onto a battlefield. Before he began to utterly slaughter these creatures that had dared harm his lieges, he noticed that they were asleep under a nearby tree. Formerly asleep to be more accurate as his battle cry had jolted both of them awake.

"Frederick!" Lissa cheered, getting up and running toward the hulking mass of armor. Lissa lunged at Frederick, giving him a big hug. Frederick returned the embrace and looked back at the tree where Chrom was, who was sluggishly getting up. Frederick and Lissa ended their hug and brought their attention to Chrom who was having a hard time refreshing himself with his hands placed on his knees.

"Are you alright milord?"

Chrom looked up to Frederick with a weak grin.

"Just give me a moment.", Chrom exhaled, taking deep breaths. "Gods, you'll never believe what we just encountered a few minutes ago."

"Walking corpses." Lissa and Frederick stated simultaneously. This brought a surprised face to Lissa.

"You saw them too?!"

"Yes. Robin and I had to go through many of them as we fled the campsite." Frederick then looked around him. "Where is he…?"

"Right here." Robin stated, emerging from the woods atop Frederick's horse. He then patted the horse on the neck. "I think you forgot something." The horse stopped at the group and lowered down for Robin to hop off. Frederick gave a genuine smile to Robin.

"Thank you." he said plainly and threw himself back onto the horse.

Robin analyzed the battlefield the group had found themselves in. He deduced it was quite old from how rusted and decayed the weapons scattered across the field were as well as the ivy growing between the weathered cobblestone that made up the abandoned forts. Wooden defenses such as cover and spike arks were still standing and even still had the remains of battle with various weapons and arrows lodged into the wooden barriers and several pieces of armor skewered onto the spikes. Robin was quite impressed that these structures were still intact after all of this time. The group then proceeded to walk to the nearest fort.

"We should camp inside the fort until morning. Who knows if any more of those things are still lurking out there." Chrom spoke up.

"Agreed," Frederick replied. "I'll take first watch."

"Thanks Fred." Chrom said as he walked past him and placed a fist onto his shoulder.

"Make to wake us up if those monster come back, ok?" Lissa said as she walked up to Frederick with worried eyes.

"I'll make sure to wake you as I cut them down miss Lissa." Frederick stated.

"Thanks a bunch." Lissa replied, walking past Frederick with a loud yawn.

Robin was preoccupied with studying one of the abandoned swords he found laid on the ground. Even without his memory, he somehow knew how old this sword was, which shocked him. He wasn't shocked by being able to figure out the age, he'd long accepted that he was able to remember some things just by looking at them judging by all the tomes he knew how to masterfully use as well as the Levin sword. Instead, the sheer age of the sword itself is what shocked him. This blade, utterly rusted and weathered by time, wasn't crumbling in his hands despite being almost two thousand years old. Just what kind of place was thi-

"Robin." Frederick said, standing behind him.

Robin jumped a bit from the sudden interruption causing him to drop the rusted sword. Once it collided with the ground it shattered into pieces.

"Damn it." Robin whined.

"Sorry, were you looking at that?"

"It's nothing, just an old sword. You need me for something?"

Frederick tossed a bag next to Robin. The same one that Frederick had placed his confiscated weapons in.

"Still don't trust me?" Robin said, with slight disappointment in his voice.

"I want to. I truly want to trust you, but even you know how ludicrous your story sounds."

"I know, it's just… it just felt like you gave me back these weapons as a sign of trust and now you're taking that token away."

"I'm sorry." Frederick said with a hint of disappointment in his voice as well."I did give you those weapons as a sign of trust. After everything you've done since we found you, you've done nothing but help me. You were almost killed doing so. Please keep building that trust."

Robin took out his sword and tomes, carefully placing them back in the bag. Once he was finished Frederick took the bag and tightened it with a rope and slinging it behind him. Frederick turned away from Robin and began to walk back to the fort. Robin sat back down on the ground and started collecting the pieces of the sword that had shattered. He figured the shards would make for a nice momento once they parted ways.

"I will Frederick. I promise."

"Thank you."

Frederick left Robin on his own who was still studying the sword shards and trying to see which pieces fit together. Eventually, Robin was able to put all the sword pieces back together on the ground. He took the piece that was formerly the tip of the sword and began etching numbers into the different pieces. Maybe he could forge the pieces back into one whole again.

You will become one with me Robin.

Who are you?

I… I am your destiny. Your fate.

How are you any of that?

I have no beginning or end. I simply am.

That doesn't make sense.

It will in time Robin.

* * *

"Wake up!" Chrom yelled while also shaking Robin.

"Ah gods! I'm up!" Robin yelled back. "What's going on?"

"Take a look!" Chrom replied, motioning towards the sky.

Robin looked to the sky to see the sky lit with glowing eyes. They were the same ones Chrom and Lissa had encountered before and this time there was a constant stream of the corpses coming out of every single eye. Robin looked into the surrounding woods and could see countless red eyes glowing in the darkness.

"Oh gods… there's hundreds of them!" said Robin fearfully.

"Let's get back into the fort. Frederick and Lissa are already getting everything together. Hopefully we have something that'll help us get out of this."

"Gods I hope so."

Everything Lissa and Frederick had gathered were laid out onto a stone table. There were seven vulnaries, and two axes, a lance, and a sword for Frederick. The bag containing Robin's weapons was also placed right next to the table.

"That's all we have? Don't get me wrong Frederick, you can take on tons of enemies but I don't think you can take an entire army on your own." Robin stated. He glanced at his bag of weapons. Without approval, he took the bag and slumped it onto the table causing Frederick to ready his lance towards Robin.

"What are you doing?!" Frederick yelled. Robin didn't take a moment to even glance towards Frederick and proceeded to open the bag. He then looked directly at Frederick.

"I've barely been able to look at any of these tomes. If I'm carrying high skill ones such as Elwind, perhaps there's something else I had that we can use. Now can you please put the lance down?"

Frederick took a moment to process what Robin had said. It was either face the hundreds of corpses outside without him or be tricked by Robin's deception, their only chance of surviving is if Robin did have something to help them. Frederick then lowered his lance and allowed Robin to shuffle around the bag.

"Elwind….Arcfire...Thoron...Alight!" Robin exclaimed, proceeding to pull a white tome out of the bag."

"What is that?" asked Chrom.

"Alight. It's a simple spell that creates a bright ball of light. If I use it just right, I can make it bright enough to temporarily blind the enemies and give us a chance to escape. It's been dark for a while now so it should help amplify the effect. I'll go up to a window and use the spell. Make sure to cover your eyes when I do!"

Everyone else nodded and voiced their agreement with Robin's plan. Robin rushed up the fort's stairs and climbed up to the highest floor. Once there, he found an open window and looked at the area around him. The eyes had disappeared but the corpses had all made their way onto the battlefield. They were barely a few miles away from their fort at the most yet it still filled him with anxious dread. If this didn't work it would take a divine miracle to save them.

"I'm using the spell!" Robin called out. "Cover your eyes!"

With that, Robin opened the tome and felt the magic connection between him and the tome. Tomes had many ways to be used. Mages could easily control the regular output of a tome once they learned how to use it, but learning and controlling different variants of the spell required much more dedication and magical prowess. Robin hoped he was a mage who could do this since he was carrying such high skill tomes and Alight was a beginner's level spell.

"Galvanized Alight!" he yelled. A small ball of light emerged from the tome and hovered in front of Robin. At first he was severely disappointed by this output, but then realized he felt a connection to the ball. Now he was suddenly able to swiftly make the ball move anywhere he wanted and even control the size. Robin looked back outside and willed the ball towards the sky. Once it was high enough to be seen by even a passing knight several miles away, he grew it to be immensely large. Robin covered his eyes to avert being blinded by his own light, though could see his eyelids' skin being lit. After a few moments had passed he decided to shrink the ball down and look back outside.

They were still moving. Not a single one of the corpses had been affected by the light.

"DAMMIT!" Robin screamed, tossing the tome onto the ground.

"What happened?" Chrom yelled up. He was greeted by silence.

"Robin what happened?" he asked again

"It didn't work." Robin replied quietly.

"What?"

"IT DIDN'T WORK!" Robin yelled.

Lissa, Frederick, and Chrom all slouched down in disappointment and fear. Robin himself slumped onto a wall. What the hell were they going to do now?

…

Screw it. If they all weren't going to escape, he sure as hell would make the others live. He jumped up from the wall and ran down the stairs, calling out the names of the others.

"What is it Robin?' Chrom called out. Robin ignored his question and went right next to the stone table.

"Frederick. Take two vulneraries and two of your weapons. Leave the rest of them on the table." Robin commanded

"Robin what are you-" Chrom started.

"Chrom, take two as well. Keep your sword with you." Robin then turned to look at Lissa.

"Robin please tell me what you're-" Chrom started again.

"Lissa, take two vulnaries for yourself. Make sure to stay in proximity to all of us incase we need you to heal us."

"FOR THE LOVE OF THE GODS ROBIN WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU PLANNING?!" Chrom yelled. This caused everyone's head in the room to snap towards Chrom.

"We're going to fight them." Robin answered plainly. That made Lissa and Frederick shout out a "WHAT?!" in response simultaneously. Chrom merely crossed his arms and stayed silent.

"How exactly are we going to pull that off? There's hundreds of them out there! There's no way we can win!" Lissa argued. Robin looked down, taking his attention away from everyone else.

"...I know." He said calmly. He continued to look down, trying to avoid facing the reactions to his words.

"There's hundreds of them out there and only four of us. There's no possible way all four of us could simply kill all of them. We'd kill about fifty of them at most before wearing ourselves out. What I propose it this. I'll use my tomes to create a hole in their lines for you all to escape on Frederick's horse."

Robin's arms began to tremble on the table.

"You all deserve to live. I'm just an amnesic whose probably a sworn enemy of your country. Who knows, maybe I've even been responsible for some of their deaths. This could be divine justice for what I've done for all I know."

The room stayed silent for several moments.

"No." Chrom stated. Robin's head shot up to this response.

"What...what did you say?"

"I'm not letting you sacrifice yourself. I refuse to leave someone behind just to live. If you stay then I'm staying."

"Me too!" Lissa added.

"Lissa…" Robin said. He then looked at Frederick, who had a stoic expression on his face.

"I'm sorry." he said, before slamming his fists on the heads of Chrom and Lissa, knocking them unconscious. He then picked up their bodies and walked out of the fort. Robin followed him with his bag of weapons. Frederick slumped them on top of his horse, secured their bodies to the horse with a rope, and climbed on board.

"I've give you a signal when to break through. It'll be a bright ball of light. Make sure to head in that direction when you see it." Robin said. Frederick looked down at Robin from his horse. He was noticeably depressed.

"Thank you. I'm proud to have met you and fought alongside you. Stay brave and vigilant. Goodbye Robin." Frederick ended his words with a salute towards Robin.

"Thank you for everything. Goodbye Frederick." Robin replied, giving Frederick a salute as well.

Robin strapped the bag around his back and charged towards the horde of corpses coming his way. Gods there were so many of them. Robin dug out his Levin sword and his Thoron tome. Hopefully the helmets on these corpses were just as conductive as the ones before. Robin finally got within firing distance of the corpses. Please be safe, all of you, he thought.

"Thoron!" Robin shouted. A large beam of electricity shot out from the hand gripping the Levin sword and shot through several corpses. The good news from the attack was that it could reach all the way through the end of the creatures' lines as for a moment, he could see the edge of the woods before it was sealed by the corpses moving inwards to close the gap. The bad news was that these creatures' helmets were not made of the conductive metal that were present on the previous corpses he had fought.

The corpses began to charge towards Robin while making their inhuman roars. Robin dropped Thoron and took out Elwind and proceeded to use the spell and lifted many of the corpses into the air. He then raised his Levin sword and began to strike each of the corpses with a precise lightning bolt. Again this opened a space to get through the horde and still it was swiftly closed by the corpses.

This gave Robin an idea. He charged through the horde with Arcfire now in hand, burning a path straight into them. Several swords and axes scratched and tore Robin's skin and clothes as he fought his way into the thick of the horde. Once he could see the forest just a little bit away, he lunged his Levin sword into the air. Still feeling the magic connection to it, he summoned a rain of lightning to create a small hole in the horde. Continuing to bring down lightning was straining his energy. Knowing that there would be one chance for escape, he took out Alight and gave the signal for Frederick to move. Robin then took out Arcfire and Thoron and summoned a column of fire that opened a pathway for Frederick to enter through. On cue, Frederick's horse charged through first opening he had created. Robin then used Thoron to shoot an exit hole for Frederick to get through. Axes clashed on the sides of his horse as he moved, but non were able to stop him. Frederick passed by Robin for a moment and used it to give one last salute of goodbye. Frederick escaped with Chrom and Lissa still on his horse, alive.

Robin fell on his knees with relief. They were safe now. With hordes of corpses surrounding his barrier of lightning, and Robin quickly growing weaker as he kept the barrier up, Robin decided to put all of his remaining energy into the downpour of lightning. One massive bolt of lightning struck down around Robin and killed nearly every corpse around him. The purple smoke that came from them was enough to grow into a dense gas that made Robin unable to see even his own hands in front of his face. What he could see, was the red glow of the corpses' eyes growing towards him. Utterly exhausted, Robin collapsed to the ground and started to lose conscious. The red eyes continued to grow brighter and brighter until he could even see the outline of the corpses themselves. Robin closed his eyes and hoped he would fall out of consciousness before they started hacking away at him.

Finally he heard the sound of metal hitting flesh, but did not feel it. Had he luckily lost feeling? No, he could feel the blades of grass on his fingers. Before Robin could find out the source of the sound, he finally fell out of consciousness.

"Hey Ruffles there's someone still alive here!" A woman called out.


	3. Chapter 3

How could you have done that! He was my papa!

There was nothing I could've done! I had no control!

Tell that to the hundreds of people who want your head! I want your head!

Please…

You're horrible! Absolutely horrible! I HATE YOU!

"I'm sorry!" Robin yelled, propping himself up from his dream. A scent of early morning dew filled his nostrils as he awoke. Robin was on the back of a wagon of sorts that was pulled by a horse and covered head to toe in bandages and crude repairs. The person riding the horse was a young man with messy, greenish-brown hair and wore bright green armor to compliment the tint of his hair. Next to him was another horse, however it was not pulling the wagon. The person riding this horse was a woman with very short red hair and wore the same style of armor as the green man, only she was red where he was green. She seemed quite tough, or at least carried the demeanor of a strong person, evident by the green man tensing up every time she talked to him.

"There is no need to be sorry friend, we have saved you!" a man next to Robin spoke. Robin turned to see the man whose presence he had been unaware of the whole time. This man was dressed quite differently than the two riders as the riders were wearing armor meant for wars, yet this man was wearing something meant for nobles at a castle. His blue hair also accentuated his unorthodox attire as it was styled in a way that suggested he had only cleaned it mere moments ago.

"Who? Where? What? How did-" Robin tried voicing one of the many questions he had, but could form none from the endless barrage of thoughts and questions that surged in his mind. The finely dressed man smiled and gave a small chuckle.

"Relax friend." the man stated. "I will explain everything to you. First however, introductions are in order. What may I call you my friend?"

"Robin."

"Ah, it is a fine pleasure to meet you Robin. I am Virion, Archduke of Rosanne of Valm. Also known as the Archest of Archers and Wooest of Wooers! Take whichever title you prefer." Virion replied.

Robin grew an awkward smile on his face. "I'll just call you Virion if that's alright."

"Very well. Not everyone is able to remember such a prestigious title that is Virion, Archduke of Rossanne and Archest of-!"

"Or they just happen to find everything you say to be utter crap." the red woman cut in.

"Ah, the thorn of the rose! How deep you cut, yet still offer a symbol of beauty!" Virion called back in a poetic manner. The red woman gave a short laugh in response.

"Name's Sully by the way." she yelled back to Robin. "Partner in crime over here is Stahl."

Stahl raised his hands to wave at Robin. He waved back in response.

"So, Robin, what do you wish to know?" Virion asked.

"How the heck did you guys find me?"

"Oh quite simple really. We were-"

"WE," Sully interrupted while motioning to her and Stahl, "were the ones scouting for someone. Ruffles here just decided to tag along for Gods know what reason."

"Why it is to stay with you my divine rose! To deprive myself the sight of such beauty as yours would be a-"

"It ain't working Ruffles. Can it." She interrupted again.

Virion leaned to Robin's ear and whispered "She's quite a hard catch, wouldn't you say?"

"She's a challenge for you then?"

"Very perceptive my friend! Indeed, it is a challenge to keep the honorary title bestowed upon me for generations! I will not rest until I receive one evening with thy rose!" Virion declared poetically. Robin just shook his head grinning at the one man show that was Virion.

"So back to my question. How did you guys find me?" Robin asked.

"Did you not expect someone to see the giant light you created? Why if I didn't know better, I'd say the sun itself had decided to come down to the earth!"

"So you also must've seen all of those walking corpse monsters, how did you guys get through all of them? There were hundreds of them!"

"Why it was you who had taken out most of those vile creatures! Whatever trick of magic you used to exhaust yourself was enough to destroy them! Matter of fact, if it wasn't for that giant fog of purple, we'd have never bothered trying to rescue you!"

Robin slumped back onto the wagon he was in. Through some sheer luck of divine origin, there were people close enough to come save him when he fought against those corpses. He looked at his own hands, sinking in the realization that in any other normal circumstance, he'd have been dead. Unable to feel anything. He felt more gratitude to be alive than he ever had before. He realized something. Who were these people looking for?

"You said you were out here looking for someone, right?" Robin asked. Virion nodded his head in response.

"This person doesn't happen to be a man named Chrom, correct?"

The horses controlled by Stahl and Sully immediately stopped in their tracks. Both of soldiers then snapped their heads directly at Robin.

"What the hell did you just say?" Sully demanded.

Of course they were looking for Chrom, Robin thought.

"I was traveling with him from one of his border patrols. Last night we dealt with a massive earthquake and those corpses appeared after it stopped. We got surrounded by them at that battlefield you found me at. There was no way for all of us to get away, the corpses had utterly surrounded us. It was like a giant ring of walking corpses. I managed to get him, along with Lissa and Frederick, to escape by creating an opening in the ring using the spells I had."

Virion, Sully, and Stahl merely stared at Robin. Everyone was silent, letting the news sink into all of them. Sully then turned to look at Stahl.

"We need to start moving towards the capital. NOW!" She commanded. With a crack of the whip and a "YAH!" they began to ride swiftly through the forest to meet back up with their prince.

Robin hoped with every fiber of his being that Chrom and the others managed to get away safely.

* * *

Their trek through the dew filled forest to the capital of Ylisse, Ylisstol, lacked any form of conversation. Aside from the vulgar remark from Sully over a branch scratching her or to tell Stahl to wake up, no one dared spark any conversation the entire time.

Robin didn't know what to feel. Should he feel relieved from his unlikely rescue, or anxious for knowing who Chrom was? Were any of them suspicious of him like Frederick was?

Sure his coat was dirty and cut up from the previous events, but the purple detailing still showed through all the dirt, burns, and cuts. He checked his hands to see what the condition of his gloves were. They too, were dirty and cut up, but the right glove was still intact enough to cover his hand and, more importantly, his tattoo.

Where were the weapons he had? Looking around the wagon and checking his coat's compartments, he found no bag of weapons and no tomes or swords in his pockets. They must've been left behind at the battlefield. No Levin sword to identify him as a Grimleal.

What were these fanatics even about? Surely they must've had more reason to be disliked other than their choice of religion, as every fanatic was just that, a fanatic. No matter the choice of worship, fanatics were naturally disliked. So why the Grimleal especially? Did they do anything illegal? Did they vandalize and attack things like the bandits? Were they the ones instigating the war between Plegia and Ylisse? Yes, that had to be it. Whoever was currently in control of Plegia must've been a member of the Grimleal. The association with their military and the honors they received was clearly the reason why.

"We're here White." Sully called out.

Robin snapped himself out of his thought filled trance and looked at the kingdom before him. Ylisstol amazed him. It looked almost exactly like the kind of kingdom you would see in a children's book of knights and dragons. The castle towered high over the buildings that made up the kingdom. There were towers all over the kingdom for who knew what purpose. Hopefully a library, Robin thought.

They continued to travel to Ylisstol's front entrance. There, a watchguard called for their identity. Sully gave out her title "Shepherd militia cavalry unit Sully Cain Resa", along with Stahl who identified himself as "Shepherd Militia Cavalry Unit Stahl Abel Virident". Virion gave a small chuckle.

"Cain and Abel. Quite a legacy to be named after, no?" Virion remarked, looking towards Robin to respond to his inquiry.

"Sorry, I'm not familiar with the two." Robin replied

"You do not know the tales of the Bull and Panther of Archanea? Why, they served right alongside the legendary Marth! To not know about those two means to know nothing about the legends of the hero-king himself!"

"I'm not familiar with the legend of Marth either." Robin said plainly. Virion merely stared at him in awe.

"What vile city of rocks have you been living under your entire life?!" he exclaimed.

"It's a long story. Mind telling me where I can read these tales?" Robin asked.

"Book of the Hero-King: Shadows and Mysteries." Virion plainly shot out. "There's also various biographies and tales of the other members of his legendary party. Such as 'The Iron Wall', and, my personal favorite, 'The Archest Lad', as well as 'The Hidden Mystery' and…"

Robin tuned Virion out once he realized they had entered the kingdom. Everywhere he looked Robin could see people carrying out their lives in prosperous demeanors. There was a long street market filled with stands and people buying and selling various goods. Children were running around with their friends, playing games, and even reading books. Clothes lines filled the upper stories of houses as they extended from window to window, clamping down clothes that waved like a flag in the spring breeze.

After the constant fighting and flame filled places he had put himself through, these sights of a happy and peace filled kingdom were one of the most refreshings views Robin had the pleasure of seeing. He could feel a wave of anxiety release from him and had actually managed to relax his almost constantly tense shoulders for the first time in what felt like months despite actually being a few days since Chrom had found him.

That's right! He had never bothered to think about where he and the people who found him had been traveling to this entire time he was in the wagon. They had immediately turned away to travel to this place when they heard that he knew who Chrom was and that he'd been

traveling with him. Where were they going if that information told them to travel here so quickly? Was there some kind of rendezvous point that they knew to go to? Why then would it be the castle.

Then, loud bells began to ring, interrupting Robin's train of thoughts.

"They've already started the service." Sully commented.

"What service?" Robin asked. Sully turned back to look at Robin with a sly smile across her face.

"Let's just say most people don't get to see these themselves."

What the hell were they going to? Robin thought. Then, like bricks slamming in front of him to declare their presence of an answer, they came across a graveyard. Several people were dressed in black, clearly a funeral for someone, and they were gathered around a tombstone shaped like a… like a Levin sword...

"Oh you have got to be kidding me!" Robin yelled.

"Welcome to your own funeral Robin!" Sully declared, breaking into a laughing fit. Her laughing was enough to catch the attention of the one man not dressed in black. He had blue hair, a white cape, and a golden sword placed in a velvet sheath.

"SULLY!" Chrom yelled.

"Oh shi-," Sully caught herself and posed herself upward. "Captain Chrom!" she saluted. Stahl and Virion followed suit. Robin could see rage boiling in Chrom's eyes as he stomped towards her.

"What is the meaning of this?! Having a laughing fit during a funeral?! Have you no respect for the dead?!" Chrom yelled, so focused on voicing his fury to Sully it hadn't ever occurred to him to even glance at the person in the wagon.

"Captain Chrom please-" Stahl started.

"No Stahl. You place your heart well, but this is something that cannot be defended."

Robin continued to watch Chrom berate Sully for her disrespectful action. Why wasn't she voicing the fact the person they were having the funeral for was standing just a few feet away from Chrom? He then noticed Sully had both of her hands behind her back, moving her fingers up and down at a rhythm of about a second.

She was turning this into a damn game. Robin went into a laughing fit at this revelation.

"Who the hell is laughing now!" Chrom yelled, looking in the direction of the new source of disrespect. "I swear to the gods if Sully doesn't have an extremely good reason for this, I will-" Chrom stopped when he saw Robin's face. Robin brought his hand up to wave hello while Chrom just stared in silence, blinking rapidly.

"Surprise captain! We brought your friend back from the dead! Fifty-six seconds by the way." Sully taunted.

While everyone in the crowd merely stared at the current revelation standing before them, a glint of sunlight reflecting on metal caught Robin's eye. It was none other than Frederick himself, out of his heavy armor for the first time Robin had ever seen, and wearing a black suit. The gleam didn't come from the expected axe or sword. Instead, it was a kabob with smoked meat stuck at the end of it. Frederick was rushing towards Robin at the same speed he always went whenever he… was… trying to… attack... someone…

Oh gods, he thought.

"Frederick it's me! That's why we're laughing!" Robin yelled at the incoming, one-man stampede. Frederick didn't stop. He sped closer and closer to Robin with the kabob of meat extended towards him. Robin tried to continue pleading with Frederick to stop, each plead being ignored by him until finally Frederick was close enough to thrust the kabob at Robin. He closed his eyes, preparing for the end.

Rather than meeting his divine creators, the smell of old boots filled his nostrils. Robin opened his eyes to see the smoked meat stuck directly in his face.

"Eat this and prove to me you're him." Frederick commanded.

"Do you have silverware?" Robin asked.

"EAT IT!"

Robin took the meat from the kebob and hesitantly took a bite as the horrendous smell filled his nostrils and only became more potent when he brought it to his face. Robin chewed the meat in front of everyone awkwardly staring at him. Then something triggered inside of him. The hunger that he had managed to ignore during his travels had returned in full force. Robin slammed his face into the meat and began to tear through it voraciously as he swallowed mouthful after mouthful of the meat.

"By the gods, it is you! You're alive!" Chrom yelled.

Robin grew confused. "How exactly does eating meat prove that I'm the real me?" he asked. Chrom then pointed towards a dining table laid out in the cemetery with a giant skinned and char-grilled bear. It looked almost untouched aside from a chunk that was obviously the origins of his recent meal.

"Robin, you are the only person I have ever met that has torn into bear meat as much as you just did." Chrom stated. He then grew a smile on his face and approached Robin, giving him a brief hug and pat on the back once he reached him.

"Let's head over to the castle. There's quite a lot of stuff we need to talk about and I imagine you must be starving." Chrom then started walking across the street, followed closely by Frederick.

"What the hell kind of world did I wake up to?" He asked the gods, unsure and uncaring if any of them were listening to him. Another sign of some kind of divine observer made its presence when, as soon as Robin asked his question, he saw a butcher running out of his kitchen and was being chased by a cow, a pig, two geese, and four chickens as he yelled and screamed for his life trying to run away from them. Robin just looked up to the sky with a face that read "Really?" and then decided to follow Chrom and Frederick to the castle.

* * *

Robin couldn't help being amazed at what he saw at the castle. Even though it had been huge from the outside, it didn't fully resonate with him how huge the structure was until he had walked through several ginormous rooms and hallways. Butlers and maids attended small chores and duties such as polishing the decorative ceramics or sweeping dirt off the carpets. Despite having no memories of his past, Robin knew he had never seen activity like this before by how amazed and unfamiliar he felt.

As they continued to walk down hallways he began to take note of the paintings that lined along the walls. One thing of note he found with each of these paintings was how each of them were dressed like kings and all of the people in them had short, blue hair. Eventually they passed by the largest painting of all, and Robin knew exactly who this was thanks to Virion's prior ramblings.

The painting displayed the typical regal, blue haired swordsman, though what made this painting unique was the pose the man was making. Unlike the prior painting which had displayed the kings merely sitting or kneeling, this man was holding a sword and raising it skyward while the man looked in the direction of the blade. Below the painting read 'The Hero-King Marth, King and Savior of Altea, Wielder of the Falchion, slayer of the Shadow Dragon, Medeus, and Ancestor to the Exalt."

"Robin, there's someone I'd like you to meet." Chrom called out. Robin shifted his focus from the painting and quickly walked over to Chrom, who has his hand placed around a door handle. Chrom opened the door to reveal a massive throne room. A large mural of Marth and the Knights of Altea was painted on top of the ceiling. The room's walls were painted beige and gave it a golden glow that complemented the reds of tapestries and carpets and the golds of various cases that held artifacts and heirlooms. Robin couldn't help himself and immediately went over to the various cases to learn more about these old items. One was a large silver spear with a golden hilt and a red arm sling. Another item was a blue stone surrounded by a golden frame. One frame, decorated with a faded and tattered red flag with a golden lion, displayed a sword with a gold hilt and a red gemstone in the middle. A plaque below the weapon read, "Wielded by King Alm of Valentia, the Valentian Falchion was presented as a gift and sign of peace to Altea and her people by Queen Celica of Valentia."

"I see your friend here has a taste for history." A woman announced. Robin turned his gaze from the relics to see a tall woman dressed in beige robes to match the room they were in, who had stood up from the throne chair she had been sitting and observing Robin from the whole time he was in there. Robin's face grew red from embarrassment and kneeled to apologize for his disrespect.

"Please, stand up." She said calmly. Robin stood and was alarmed by the fact she was now standing next to him, looking at the same sword he had. She then took a key she had been holding and unlocked the case, picked up the weapon, and began to observe it.

"War is a very interesting nature of humanity. It creates monsters and it also creates heroes. The best and worst of our people." She began to swing the sword in an elegant manner.

"For one to fight, it must take devotion and sacrifice to one's people to achieve their goal. To know you are taking the lives of people who have loved ones waiting for their return. I believe that is a sacrifice in and of itself." The woman then stopped her display of swordsmanship and placed the weapon back into the case, locking it once again. She then turned to face Robin.

"But to live for one's people, I would think is an even greater sacrifice. To give the people who have placed their faith in you, without raising a weapon against another. To advocate an end to conflict, in hope that people may join together to achieve peace through their ideals rather than through force. This blade is a remnant of a kingdom ruled by the personification of those ideals."

Robin's mouth had dropped while listening to this woman, amazed by the insight she had spoken.

"Sorry!" she laughed. "I do tend to get a tad dramatic when remembering history. I haven't even asked for your name."

"My name is Robin your highness." Robin said while bowing in respect.

"I am Emmeryn, the Exalt of Ylisse. You've already been well acquainted with my brother it seems."

"You don't know the half of it Emm." Chrom said, joining the conversation. "It's actually part of why I came here to talk with you. We need to start building up a militia."

Emmeryn's face dawned a look of concern and annoyance. "Chrom, you know what I think about having an army. Plegia doesn't need-"

"This isn't about Plegia." Chrom interrupted. "Something strange happened when we were out there. These… creatures… just emerged from portals by the hundreds. Lissa and I weren't even able to handle these creatures on our own."

"What are they exactly Chrom?"

"Emm, please believe me when I say, these creatures were corpses risen from the dead to attack us."

Emmeryn closed her eyes in pure annoyance. "Chrom I know you want to be able to protect the people if Plegia does indeed attack-"

"I'M SERIOUS EMMERYN!" Chrom yelled. Robin was taken back by the sudden aggression he held in his voice.

"Lissa almost died out there! I almost died out there!" Chrom turned to face Robin. "And I thought he was dead. These creatures are dangerous and may have already attacked several villages by now. We need to organize a militia here, one that isn't just the Shepherds, if we want to protect our people. Please Emm!"

Emmeryn turned her gaze to Robin.

"Robin, is what Chrom says true?"

Robin stared back at Emmeryn, with utter conviction in his eyes.

"I'm not one to boast milady, but all of us out there would've died had I not created an escape for Chrom, Lissa, and Frederick. It's by sheer divine intervention that other members of the Shepherds found me before the horde of those creatures killed me. You need to trust your brother."

"Very well then. Chrom, organize all of the Shepherds still in Ylisstol and begin recruiting. Understand that the message comes clear that this militia is to protect people from an inhuman force."

Chrom's eyes grew wide in relief. "Thank you Emm. I promise this will-"

"LADY EMMERYN!" A woman called out, after slamming the entry doors open. She sprinted to Emmeryn and kneeled, breathing hard.

"What is it Phila?"

"Milady, several villages have been attacked by creatures. Survivors have all reported that these creatures were people risen from their graves and were attacking people violently."

Emmeryn's eyes grew wide, fully realizing what was now at stake.

"Chrom, start recruiting process now!" She commanded. Chrom nodded and left the building.

"Phila, gather the Pegasus Knights and scout the outer villages. Inform them of the attacks and to move to the capital. If you come across a village under attack, protection of the people is your highest priority."

"Understood milady." Phila said and rushed out of the room.

"You are a tactician, yes?" Emmeryn asked Robin. He nodded.

"Chrom could definitely use your help. He'll likely have ran to the courtyard, that's where he and the Shepherds usually gather."

"Thank you milady." Robin replied, and ran out to the courtyard.

* * *

True to Emmeryn's words, Chrom and several other people were gathered in the courtyard. Chrom noticed the footsteps behind him and turned to see Robin approaching him.

"Ah Robin, I'd like you to meet a few other members of the Shepherds." Chrom greeted. "Everyone, this is the man who saved my life out in the forest. Please introduce yourselves."

A shirtless man who had been sitting on a nearby fountain stood up and placed a battleaxe on his shoulder. "Name's Vaike, people call me Teach."

"Nobody calls you that Vaike." Sully interrupted, standing next to Stahl and Virion from before.

"Why Teach you ask?" Vaike continued, ignoring Sully, "Because I've got a degree in bringing the pain!"

"...A pleasure to meet you...Teach…" Robin replied. A wide smile grew on Vaike's face.

"You're my new favorite person." Vaike said.

"I'm Sumia, a pleasure to make your acquaintance!" said a woman with silver armor and a feather in her hair. Robin extended his arm but as Sumia walked to shake hands with him, she tripped and fell to the ground with a loud and metallic crash. Everyone tensed up to help her up but Sumia was quick to get back up and wipe dirt off herself.

"Are you alright?" Robin asked concerned. Sumia finished wiping dirt off and glanced over to him.

"It's fine. Pegasus Knight armor has always had a tendency to trip me up. Weighted armor for balance and what-not. Sure does its job though." Sumia laughed.

Robin nodded and looked at the final member gathered at the courtyard. A woman dressed in a fine garb meant for an upper class royal. She approached Robin and twirled a pink umbrella up to her chin.

"I am Maribelle. I do hope you are cut from finer cloth than..him." she said, motioning to Vaike who was in the middle of belching, much to the displeasure of the people standing next to him.

"All right. Now that introductions out of the way, let's get this operation started." Chrom announced. Everyone nodded and waited for their orders. Maribelle was instructed to use her contacts to get supplies for the militia. Frederick was put in charge of setting up stands to begin the recruitment process, accompanied by Sumia, Sully, and Stahl. Vaike was put in charge of gathering weapons. All that remained of the group was Robin, Chrom and Lissa.

"Chrom, if there's anything I can do to help, please let me!" Robin requested.

"I appreciate the sentiment, but right now what you need is some rest."

"But I slept the whole-"

"Emotional rest, Robin. You've been doing nothing but traveling and going through several trials. Even I can see you're under a lot of stress right now."

Robin looked silently at Chrom, aware of the truth in his words but unwilling to accept it. Chrom continued his lecture.

"We'll be leaving Ylisstol come next week. I'm going to need you at your best."

Robin's eye grew wide.

"You- You're taking me with you?"

"Well of course. You're the only reason any of us are here to talk. If you don't want to come I understand and-"

"I am going with you." Robin interrupted. Chrom smiled in response.

"Glad to hear. Lissa!"

"Yeah Chrom?" she replied.

"You wouldn't mind being a guide for Robin around the city would you?"

"Of course not!" Lissa turned and yanked Robin's hands. "Oh I can't wait to show you around! We've got some AWESOME markets. There's one for wooden figures, one where they make baskets out of bird feathers, and there's even one for…" Lissa's voice trailed off as she marched off with Robin down a street.

Chrom was now alone at the quiet courtyard, disturbed only by the rushing water of the fountain.

"I promise you. All of you. I won't fail to protect you this time."


	4. Paralogues 1

"The more villages we lose the more farmland we also lose!" A nobleman argued.

"Indeed, at the same time, don't you think it's obvious that Plegian spies will report the growth of another small militia? Won't that be seen as a sign of aggression? If we start a war now, it'll be a losing one." Another replied.

"If we do nothing we'll lose innocent lives and be defenseless against an invasion." Maribelle chimed in. This sudden comment caused the arguing nobles to quickly silence themselves.

"I'm aware, just as you all are, that Plegia will no doubt believe this to be breaking our demilitarization agreement of the Ylissean Treaty. However, I would like to point out that Plegia has already since broken that part of the treaty. You do remember why the Shepherds came across these creatures in the first place, correct?"

"I-indeed Lady Maribelle." The first noblemen stammered. "It's just, the Shepherds were already supposed to be our defense force. Creating another, even larger group of soldiers is pushing what the Shepherds are even farther than we agreed upon. You'll remember that the creation of the Shepherds wasn't an easy call to make."

"Have our results not been satisfactory?" Maribelle questioned slyly, causing both noblemen to sink their shoulders.

"There are not many members of the Shepherds. Of the core group in Ylisstol, there are only eight members, excluding the two new members we recruited just today. The Shepherds have served in the defense of several villages, have stopped numerous illegal operations, and have even managed to turn a Plegia tactician to our side."

The mention of Robin had caused a nobleman who had been sipping tea to choke and cough on the fluid.

"You have a Plegian tactician?! Here in Ylisstol?!" he yelled.

"Yes. He's been quite the asset to Ylisse and its royal family apparently." Maribelle replied calmly.

"What kind of mad man would bring a Plegian Tactician to the capitol? Right where the Exalt lives? Do you have any idea how dangerous that man is?!"

Maribelle nodded.

"I'm typically not one to take to the battlefield, but I am a close companion to Princess Lissa. This tactician has earned her trust, and against my better judgement, has earned mine as well. He apparently has shown no reservations in hiding his skills from us. I do think he is lying to us to hide whatever reason he had to get away from Plegia, and it frightens me to think that there's something going on there that's having their most powerful and loyal flee the country." Maribelle stood up to tower above the sitting noblemen.

"And it's precisely why we need your support for a new militia. If not only for the creatures attacking the villages, but for when Plegia makes their move against us."

The two noblemen sighed.

"We will guarantee our support Lady Maribelle."

* * *

"Alright maggots, listen up!" Sully called out. The recruiting efforts she, Stahl, Frederick, and Sumia had not gone unnoticed in the slightest. The day of registration had been met with nearly hundreds of men and women, vowing to serve and protect the halidom. For a city that had been ruled by a pacifist leader, the people of Ylisstol were certainly eager to see some action.

"Some freak out there decided that it would be a good idea to create zombies. Yes, they're exactly that. Through an art of sacrilegious necromancy, the dead have risen to attack our people. So you know what that means?" Sully walked up to a nearby recruitee.

"I asked you a question recruit. What, does, that, mean?" The recruitee was quivering in front of the menacing woman.

"I- it means that, uh, that they'll be easy to kill?" he responded nervously. Sully placed an arm on his shoulder.

"I see, you think they'll be easy to take out huh? Increase that body count of yours to brag at parties eh? I like where you're going with that, but that's not it. Normally our enemy is a real person. Someone who hates us just as much as we hate them. They fight for a cause just like us and they die for someone just like us." Sully walked back to the center of the field. "Luckily for us, these creatures have given us the privilege of being pure monsters. They are our favorite kind of enemy, the unsympathetic ones. Our job will be to put these creatures right back where they belong and we will do so without any remorse, any hesitation, and with utter prejudice! They want to try and kill the people of Ylisse? I'd say they're begging for a fight!"

The massive group of recruits all raised their hands and cheered. Sully crossed her arms and nodded at the sound. She then backed away and let Frederick take the stage.

"Each of you will be tested for your strengths and weaknesses where you will then be assigned a role in battle to begin training. Your first test begins now." Frederick then took out a wooden axe.

"You will all face me, at the same time."

The recruits were all confused at first, not understanding what exactly they were instructed to do. It only became clear when they realized the area they had been standing in had been littered with various wooden training weapons. It wasn't long before a few people grabbed the weapon closest to them and attacked Frederick.

An hour past. The battlefield was covered in dust and the sounds of pain filled groaning could be heard. All of the recruits were collapsed on the ground, and standing above them was Frederick, unscathed.

"Test complete." he called out.

* * *

Lissa had no control of her emotions when showing Robin around the city she had grew up in. Her sister Emmeryn had been, understandably, preoccupied with ruling Ylisse. Chrom had been the person she spent the most time with, but as they grew older, Chrom also lost the free time he had as he took more and more responsibilities so he could held shoulder the burden Emmeryn carried. So, naturally, Lissa had taken to the city itself to keep herself busy. Over time, she would make friends with the children of high class nobles, such as Maribelle, and become somewhat of a joyful mascot for Ylisstol's people by spending time with other kids, older and younger, and even helping out with some of the duties the people had.

"Here's one of my favorite spots!" Lissa exclaimed, pointing towards a simple park. "C'mon!" Lissa demanded, pulling Robin by the arm into the park.

Robin was impressed by the serenity of the park. Various animals, such as rabbits, sparrows, and even some butterflies made the park seem like it had been lifted straight from a children's book. The trees added to the effect because they covered nearly the entire park with leaves, only having a few small openings that created light falling through the leaves. Robin noticed how the other people there were all being respectfully quiet to the park. Couples were sat on benches, sleeping or reading quietly to each other, elderly people were feeding crumbs to the small sparrows, and children were kept in silent awe by the beauty of the animals before them.

"Oh my gosh there it is!" Lissa squealed quietly. Robin looked to where Lissa was facing and saw a large animal grazing at a patch of grass. It was a deer, though it was not a typical one. This dear had white fur markings surrounding all of its body, and right on the forehead of it was the same tattoo mark Chrom had on his shoulder… and on Emmeryn's head, Robin realized.

"Tell me something about that symbol Lissa."

"Huh?" Lissa responded, confused.

Robin pointed to the symbol on the deer's head.

"That. It's the same symbol on Chrom's shoulder and Emmeryn's head. What does it mean?"

"Oh, that…" Lissa sighed. Robin was confused by this.

"What's wrong?"

"...That symbol is the Mark of the Exalt. It's a birthmark that appears on the descendants of the first Exalt of Ylisse."

"Well that explains it. Why does it bother you?"

Lissa looked down for a moment, and then stared at the deer's mark.

"I never got my mark. For some reason, the mark never appeared anywhere on me. Chrom and Emm's were on them since birth. It's not that I'm jealous of the mark, but it's the way some people treat me for not having one. It was the worst when Emm first became Exalt. People scrutinized me constantly because I didn't have the mark. Said I was a bad omen. I don't think I ever came out of the castle for the first couple of years when it was like that."

Robin felt his heart drop. How could the people he saw smiling in the streets and markets be the same people who treated Lissa with such cruelty. He then remembered the mark on his hand, the one that marked him as an enemy of Ylisse. Robin stood up from where they sat and removed the glove covering his marked hand.

"Robin what are you doing?! You can't let anyone see that!" Lissa yelped. Robin gripped the glove tightly.

"If I'm going to be accepted here, I can't keep secrets. Lissa, what you said proves two things. You're just a strong as Chrom and Emmeryn and that the people of Ylisse can change." With his sentence finished, Robin threw the glove into the air and let the wind carry it far away. He looked to Lissa, who was now starting to tear up.

"Thanks."

* * *

The hundreds of recruits they had secured had shrunken massively after Frederick's first test. Of the people who either left or had sustained injuries, they now had exactly seventy-eight recruits left willing to fight and train.

"You think that first test was a bit brutal?" Stahl asked. Sully ripped a bite out of her bread before responding.

"I wasn't lying when I said the things we're up against are literal monsters. Frederick's test was meant to weed out the people who can't face something whose only desire is to kill other people."

"By having them all be beaten senseless by Frederick?" Stahl said sarcastically.

"Lady Emmeryn was very specific about this militia. The last thing she wants is to have hundreds of her people signing up for their deaths without knowing the true sacrifice they're making. This isn't going to be a simple pest extermination. These things are calculated, they strategize. They aren't the normal type of zombie that stumbles around looking for the next thing to kill."

"I see your point."

Sumia then walked in with a stack of papers.

"I've got the class papers!" Sumia called out. She then laid them out across the table for all three of them to see. "Judging by the physicals and tests we taken, we've got thirty-nine recruits that'll specialize in swords, twenty-one in lances, and eighteen in axes."

"No mages huh?" Stahl asked.

"The skills of a mage must be taught through academics, not through rigorous training." A woman called out.

"Ah Miriel! Glad to see you could join us." Sumia said.

"Likewise." Miriel looked down to the list of recruits on the table. "I am to educate these recruits on the Risen's weak point, yes?"

"Risen?" Stahl questioned.

"Yes, that's what my colleagues have taken to calling them. 'Corpses that have Risen from the dead' is where that identification came from." Miriel answered.

A door swung open to reveal Frederick standing, covered in dust and dirt. "The recruits are ready for the next session." Frederick stated.

"The Risen are no different from ordinary necromancy." Miriel said, allowing her voice to be heard to the seventy-eight recruits in the room.

"Though I am not a Dark Mage, I do know of their methods and how they are performed. These creatures were made by someone who has an extremely dated practice of necromancy." Miriel walked over to a large object covered by a drape. Miriel pulled the drape to reveal a large cage that contained a living Risen soldier chained to several points in the cage. Everyone in the room gasped at the sight. Miriel took the teaching stick she was carrying and pointed straight towards the creature's face.

"The Risen are created through an ancient form of necromancy known as the Stitch Face. These are masks that are filled with bugs that are trapped within a mask made of human flesh, flesh that is molded from all over the body, not just the face." Several recruits became visibly sick at the information. Miriel continued.

"The bugs within the mask then enter through the eye sockets and up to the brain. Judging by the lack of eyeballs within these creatures, it is believed the eyes are either removed prior to the stitching of the mask, or consumed by the bugs within the mask." At this point, several recruits had already moved to nearby waste bins to empty their lunches.

"I apologize if this information has disturbed you. The intention of this information was to allow all of you to fully understand this next piece of information. Can I have a volunteer?" Miriel was greeted by utter silence.

"Very well. You." She pointed to the person closest to her. A recruit wielding a lance.

"M-me?" The recruit stammered.

"Yes." Miriel said plainly.

The recruit nervously stood up and wiped the dirt and dust from her clothes to stall her time up with Miriel.

"Now recruit!" Miriel demanded. The recruit yelped.

"Y-yes ma'am!" she said back, quickly stepping over to Miriel and, dreadfully, the cage containing the Risen.

"Now, take your lance, and thrust it into the creature's chest." Miriel ordered. The recruit readied her lance and made a powerful thrust into the creature just as Miriel instructed. The Risen yelled loudly in pain, writhing against the chains that held it in place.

"Again." Miriel commanded. The recruit retracted her lance from the creature's chest and then immediately stabbed it again.

"Again." Miriel repeated. The lance was taken out of the creature, and stabbed in to it once more.

"Again."

"Again."

"Again."

"Again"

The recruit was visibly exhausted by the countless amounts of times she had thrust her spear into the Risen. It had taken several stabs for the creature to have dissipated into a puff of smoke, signifying that it had finally perished. Once the smoke had cleared, the recruit dropped her spear and collapsed to the ground, heaving. Miriel congratulated her on being a great volunteer and instructed Sumia to help the recruit move back into the crowd. Miriel then snapped her hands to summon Sully and Stahl to move the empty cage, and then horrifyingly bring in a newly drapped cage of the exact same size as before. As expected, once Miriel removed the drape, another creature was within the cage.

"May I have your assistance Stahl?" Miriel requested. Stahl nodded and stepped over to Miriel, sword ready.

"Stahl, please demonstrate the effectiveness of penetrating the Risen's mask."

At the word, Stahl thrust his blade into the creature's face. Astoundingly, the Risen dissipated only a moment after it was stabbed. An audible gasp from several recruits could be heard.

"As you can see, what makes this an ancient and dated form of Necromancy is the fact it gives us an easy weak point for us to attack. Simply puncturing the mask is enough to end the bugs' control over the corpse." Miriel snapped her hands and just like before, another draped cage was brought over to her.

"Now then, would anyone else like to volunteer?"

* * *

Over at the Ylisstol barracks, a barrage of metal crashes and rumblings could be heard echoing all throughout the walls. When he was first instructed to gather and organize weapons for the militia Chrom was organizing, he figured it would've been easy with how much of a weapons junkie he was. Sadly for Vaike, he found out he was more fond of swinging weapons than counting them. After being berated by Frederick for simply dumping all of the training weapons across the field for the recruits first exercise, he had been ordered to simply take inventory rather than get them organized. This too, proved to be a daunting task.

"Let's see. One..two...three...four...five...seven? Gah, this is pointless. Frederick will probably recount everything anyways. Let's just say there's about..." Vaike sized up the weapons on the racks...and on the floor.

"One hundreds steel swords, seventy five steel lances, fifty steel axes, thirty javelins, and ten sets of hand-axes." A woman from behind him said, causing Vaike to scream loudly. He then turned to see it was the genius pegasus knight herself.

"Oh Cordelia, you nearly gave me a heart attack!" Vaike exhaled.

"Apologies. The Pegasus Knights were all summoned by Phila a few hours ago to go over scouting routines. We deploy tomorrow and I figured I stop by and help with the busy work." Cordelia explained as she picked up and reorganized the weapons that Vaike had scattered.

"Bull." Vaike stated.

"I'm sorry?" Cordelia replied, confused at Vaike's comment.

"Frederick put you up to this, didn't he."

"Vaike you're being absurd, why would I-"

"You lose focus when you lie." Vaike said, pointing at the axe in Cordelia's hand that she was absentmindedly placing with the barrel of lances. She sighed.

"I knew it!" Vaike yelled.

"I'm sorry! Frederick said you'd have probably left by now. He said he trusted me to get the job done properly."

Vaike slumped to the ground. A few moments of silence passed awkwardly between the two. He then started to laugh, which caused Cordelia to be utterly confused.

"What's so funny?" she asked.

"Me, Vaike, being so concerned over this! Weapon organization! Gods, mom wasn't kidding when she said the Shepherds was going to change me." Vaike stood up and crossed his arms. "Ah who am I kidding. I'm the kind of person who'd rather take an axe and send some heads flying. Counting ain't exactly kind of thing."

"Vaike, it's admirable that even despite your lack of…execution… you stayed and tried to get the job done. I'll be sure to let Frederick know you were still here when I arrived."

"Thanks Cordelia." Vaike then dropped his arms and began to walk out of the barracks.

"Be sure to tell Sumia I said hello!" Cordelia yelled.

"Will do!" Vaike's voice echoed back.

* * *

 _What happened to Mother?_

 _She served her purpose. Creating you, a true descendant of the Dark Dragon's blood._

 _Did you love her Father?_

 _My love belongs only to the Fell Dragon. She, as well as I, are only steps in returning him to our world._

 _Did Mother love you?_

 _…_

 _Father?_

 _You will speak of love no further._

Robin awoke slowly, yawning loudly. He was almost sure he was still dreaming because he had been sleeping on a real bed, in a real room, with real walls. Sunlight shone through the window across the room, signifying morning had arrived. Robin stretched his arms and stood up from the bed. Looking out the window, he was able to see the Pegasus Knights flying from Ylisstol. It was an impressive sight to behold, each rider looking like some kind of evangelical soldier sent from the heavens. He then heard a knock on his room's door.

"Hey it's Lissa. If you're awake, we've got breakfast for ya whenever you're ready."

"I'll be out in a few moments." Robin replied. He looked around the room to find some clothes to wear. Surprisingly, sitting on a table was his coat and new clothes, all folded and cleaned. Breakfast continued to surprise him with luxuries as rather than a simple cafeteria area like he had expected, it was instead a large dinner table filled with all sorts of foods. Robin almost teared up at the sight. Up until yesterday, he had been eating with the mindset of rationing what he ate. Now was the time to make up for all the hunger he had been put through since he woke up at that field. Almost half an hour later, Robin finished stuffing himself full of the food laid out before him.

"Making up for lost time?" someone commented.

Robin glanced towards the direction of the voice to see Chrom, already dressed in his typical attire.

"What gave you the impression?" Robin replied sarcastically causing Chrom to laugh a bit.

"Well, I certainly hope you enjoyed the meal. I'll be training some of our recruits, so feel free to explore the castle."

"Hey Chrom, can I ask you something?"

"Sure, what's on your mind?"

Robin paused for a second, wondering if his question was appropriate.

"If you don't mind me asking, what happened to your parents?"

Chrom grew a stoic face and looked away from him. Robin immediately regretted asking the question.

"I'm sorry, but that's something I don't want to talk about."

With that, Chrom quickly walked away from the table, leaving Robin alone once again. Robin placed his head into the palm of his hands.

"Dammit." he whispered.

Wanting to escape the tense feeling in the room, Robin got up and gave Chrom's suggestion of exploring the castle a shot.

Wandering the castle was no easy feat. While it certainly was no labyrinth, Robin couldn't help finding himself back to the same set of halls even when he deliberately tried to take different paths. He never even found much of note while exploring. At most he was able to find a room dedicated to another set of Chrom's ancestors.

Then it hit him. Where was the painting of Chrom's father? He went through the paintings in his mind and noted that none of the paintings were ever dated to be close enough to the present to be Chrom's father. Curious for the answer, Robin wandered around the castle, figuring he'd come across one of the groundskeepers or even Emmeryn. Unfortunately, there was no such groundskeeper that held knowledge of the missing painting, and Emmeryn had left the castle earlier that morning. Refusing to accept defeat, Robin decided to search through the library he found to try and get any information on Chrom's father. This too, proved to be fruitless.

While the library was massive and filled with the kinds of books he'd certainly go through later on his own time, none of them detailed any of the things Chrom had said about Ylisse. No books detailed any kind of recent war, of Plegia being destroyed by Ylisse, or even of a tyrannical Exalt. Frustrated, Robin placed the books he had collected back to where he had found them and was almost about to step out of the library, when he noticed an old man struggling to reach for a book a top a tall shelf.

"Need help with that?" Robin asked.

The old man turned to make eye contact with Robin.

"Ah yes please, come over." he replied. Robin walked over and took the book from the man.

"If you can reach it, I'm trying to put that book up on that shelf, between the brown and red one. See it?"

Robin looked to where the old man had previously been reaching for and saw precisely where he had been trying to put the book.

"I see it." he answered, taking the book from the man's hands and reaching up to the spot. Robin was barely able to reach the spot as, despite being a bit taller than the old man, it was still quite high up.

"Thank you lad."

"Not a problem."

Robin was again about to leave before he realized something.

"How long have you been at the castle?" Robin asked.

"Quite a long time actually. I've been the castle's librarian since before our current Exalt was even born." he replied.

"So… you knew who Chrom's father was?"

This caused the old man's eyes to sink a bit.

"Ah yes… I knew who he was…"

Figuring this was Robin's only real chance to get information on Chrom's father, he ignored his usual reservations to pry into sensitive subjects.

"It's just that I haven't been able to find anything on him. There's no paintings of him and there isn't a single mention of him in any of the history books you have here. The librarian remained silent.

"Take a seat at one of the tables. I'll bring you what you're looking for." he said.

Robin did as he was instructed and sat at a nearby table. The librarian walked towards a door and opened it with a key. Behind the door was a box, which took yet another key to unlock. The librarian took the object within the box over to the table Robin was sitting at.

"Ylisse and her people are still grieving from this time. It is best for our people to forget this man, but I believe history must know of him lest the same mistakes he made are repeated." At that, he slid a scroll over to Robin as well as two keys, instructing him to lock the scroll up when he was done reading.

The scroll was titled, 'The Tyrannical Rule of Ylisse's 100th Exalt'.

'The 100th Exalt of Ylisse, Krist Dudge Mecia, was a man that nearly led to the destruction of Ylisse and her neighbors. Falling into a severe depression after the death of his Lady Caen Glosbe Mecia, whom perished during the birth of Princess Lissa Mecia, Lord Mecia staged an invasion against the country of Plegia. The war raged on for several years and was conducted by severe persecution from both sides, resulting in the deaths of thousands civilians and over one million soldiers. Lord Mecia grew mad as the war went on, eventually deciding to enter the battlefield himself where he perished during his first battle at the Siege of Grann.

The death of Exalt Krist Dudge Mecia resulted in the coronation of Lady Emmeryn Mímir Mecia, who called for an immediate cease to the conflict, ending the war against Plegia. Ylisse proposed a treaty to Plegia that promised full financial support towards the country, as well as severely demilitarizing both countries as to prevent any other conflicts between the two be resolved under war. Plegia accepted the terms and have since been peacefully coexisting with Ylisse since, though tensions still do exist.

To forget the atrocities committed by Krist Dudge Mecia, Exalts have changed their names of address from their last names, to their first, with the intent to individualize actions made by future Exalts and avoid the problem of expectations surmounting a new Exalt.

May the future of the Exalts and Ylisse be prosperous, and may we never repeat these mistakes again.'

Robin re-read the scroll numerous times. This scroll explained everything. They wanted to forget their father.

"Gods…"

Robin placed the scroll back into the box, locked it, placed the box back into the closet, and locked it as well, placing the keys into a drawer nearby. Before leaving the library, Robin checked out a few books. Most were various novels about certain sciences, but there was one novel unlike the other. It read 'Book of the Hero-King: Shadows and Mysteries'.

* * *

Sully felt unnerved for one of the very few times in her life. Normally it was because she was going to face a foe of insurmountable strength, or because she pissed off Chrom. So what could be causing her to feel this way? Was she being surrounded by Risen ready to attack her? Did she laugh during a funeral again? It was none of those. She was going on a date with Virion.

Normally she'd have kicked the man in the face like she always had, yet Virion was one of the most stubborn men she had ever met, if not the most stubborn. His very presence was enough to put her into a foul mood from anticipating having to deal with his petty attempts to, as Virion put it, "woo her". So of course the only way she'd ever actually agree to his request would be if she received something out of it, and Virion knew it.

The deal was, if she spent one night with him, Virion would stop bothering her for as long as he lived. Sully figured one night of Virion's constant annoyance would be more than worth the peace and quiet she would get in return.

Feeling like tonight would be a good time to return some of the annoyance Virion gave her, Sully decided to do the one thing most people wouldn't do during a date. Be Sully. Virion met Sully at the barracks where, she still dawned a full set of armor.

"My, this is quite the unusual attire!" Virion exclaimed.

"Says the guy who wears a suit and grooms their hair on a battlefield." Sully retorted.

"Opposites do attract, no?" Virion said, grinning.

Sully audibly groaned. "Let's just get this over with Ruffles."

The two walked down the streets of Ylisstol under a starry night sky and a full moon. It'd have been the perfect night for a romantic scene in a play, however Virion and Sully carried the demeanor of a guard escorting a noble more than a dating couple as Sully walked casually with her hands on the back of her head while Virion kept dug his hands into his pockets. People who came across them even moved out of the way as they walked by, making sure to not disrespect Virion's non-existent social status. Eventually they reached their destination.

"The theater. Interesting pick Ruffles." Sully commented.

"Plays were your favorite pastime growing up, were they not?"

Sully's eyes went wide and her face grew scarlet. She never told anyone else besides her closest friends about how much she adored plays as a child.

"How the hell do you know that?"

Virion laughed. "Do not fret my dear, it was simply a bit of information your friend Stahl gifted to me."

"Of course Stahl told you." Sully exhaled.

"Come," Virion motioned. "I think you'll find the play they're performing tonight to be… familiar."

The two entered the theater's entrance, a set of spinning doors, and were thrown into a massive golden room. The theater's foyer was gargantuan in size. The floors were crafted from a set of cut granite squares and refined to be smooth and nearly reflective as a mirror. The walls were a plain beige but this was meant to make the paintings that were hanging on the wall to stand out further. The paintings were all of various plays, directors, writers, and a few were ones displaying previous versions of the theater, as this was the third version of the building after the previous ones had both burned down, the first from natural causes, the second from the orders of the 100th Exalt. The most extravagant decoration was a large golden statue of the theater's founders, Anna and Jake, who established the first theater believing it to be a good business venture for the two.

Sully grew immensely nostalgic while she was in the foyer. The last time she had entered the theater was before she and Stahl had been drafted into Ylisse's military at a young age to fight Plegia. While it wasn't the exact same theater she had once knew, the architects of the third theater made sure to carry over design elements from the first two in order to preserve some of the identity they carried. She awed at all of the various outfits and costumes of plays past held in various glass container.

"Oh I remember this one!" Sully exclaimed, pointing at an outfit that was clearly from older versions of a play titled 'Cain and Abel: The Bull and Panther' as it had a basic red paint job over the entire outfit, socks and boots included, with gold detailing. The armor itself was very amateur as well due to the blocky and worn nature of it. That didn't stop Sully from having a wave of old childhood memories coming back to her.

"I guess your middle name is less of a coincidence, no?" Virion commented.

"Cain was my childhood idol as a kid." Sully replied, eyes still fixed on the outfit. "Me and Stahl would come and watch this play whenever they were performing it. Gods, we must've seen it over a hundred times."

Virion smiled. "Well then, I think you'll want to take a look at these."

Sully took her gaze away from the costume and looked towards Virion, who was now holding two tickets. On the ticket read "The New Tales of Cain and Abel: The Bull and Panther' along with her name and seat number.

"You didn't!" Sully exclaimed, yanking her ticket from Virion's hands. His grin grew wider.

"You're right, I didn't." Virion replied, presenting the second ticket to Sully.

Sully's face grew confused until the read the name on the second ticket.

"Stahl?!" Sully said, with utter confusion in her voice. Virion took that has his cue to introduce his second guest of the night. Looking over to the entrance he found Stahl, just where he instructed him to be.

"Have fun you two!" Virion yelled, pulling Sully over to Stahl, who immediately noticed her and Virion. This caused him to become immensely confused as well.

Once Virion saw that Stahl noticed them, he stopped pulling Sully over to him and quickly went over to the exit.

"The walk counts!" He yelled as he went through the spinning doors.

Sully and Stahl looked at each other awkwardly.

"Did he?" Stahl started, pointing towards Virion's former location.

"Set this up?" Sully replied. "Absolutely."

Again, the two stood quietly and awkwardly.

"Show's about to start. I guess we should take our seats." Stahl said.

"Yeah, I guess so…"

The beginning of the play was awkward for them. Virion has tricked them both to going on a date, and it was perfect too. Annoy Sully into agreeing to go on a date with him, and ask Stahl for some information on her. It went perfectly. As the play went on, the two allowed themselves to focus less on the awkwardness of their situation and more on the play itself. The play was a redone version of the play Sully and Stahl grew up watching, with much better acting, writers, sets, costumes, and even some more advanced effects like an offstage flamethrower, rather than the painted wood of before. They were enamoured by the play before long, talking about plot details, differences between the older and new version, and cheered along with the crowd during epic moments. Eventually the play came to a close as all of the actors bowed. Cheers were heard all throughout the theater, including ones from Sully and Stahl.

"Gods, that was a wonderful play!" Stahl said.

"I loved how they incorporated some of the older dialogue while changing some of the lines to be more serious.

"Tell them I will not run!" Sully said, mimicking the actor's line from the play.

The two gushed about the play as they walked back to the barracks. Eventually the two were where the barracks split between the men and women's resting areas.

"Well." Stahl paused. "That was nice."

Sully smiled. "Yeah. Ruffles did good."

Another moment of awkward silence passed.

Stahl broke the silence by yawning and stretching his arms.

"It's getting late. We should probably rest since we're leaving Ylisstol tomorrow."

"Yeah." Sully replied flatly.

They slowly went their separate ways, until Stahl turned for one last word.

"Sully!" he yelled. She quickly turned back.

"Yeah?"

Stahl looked at her quietly. "I… I... " Stahl breathed. "...Let's watch our backs out there, alright."

Sully smiled. "You got it. Goodnight."

"Goodnight Sully." Stahl replied.

That night, Sully could've sworn she heard someone far away quietly exclaim "Yes!" And it was not Stahl.


	5. Chapter 4

Robin stared at the ceiling of his room. To think it had only been a little over a week since Chrom had found him in the field bewildered him to no end. To him, it felt like months had passed since that moment. He began to think about all that had happened since then. About the town where he saw Frederick lose all composure when he was told Chrom had perished. About the time when they had been awoken by a massive eruption right under their feet. About how he nearly died trying to save Chrom and the others when they were surrounded by the Risen. About when he first arrived to Ylisstol, and how foreign it all was to him. Finally, he thought about the trust he earned from Frederick, Chrom, and Lissa. This thought reminded him about the tattoo on his hand, which led him to lighting a nearby lamp and examining his hand. So much about the design of the tattoo stumped him. What were the eyes supposed to represent? Why were there six of them? Figuring the anxiety he was feeling that had been keeping him up for this long wasn't likely to subside anytime soon, Robin decided to go back to the library and try to find a book that would detail what his tattoo meant.

When Robin entered the library, he was welcomed by the sight of the librarian from earlier. The man was simply sitting at his desk, reading a book with a lamp nearby giving him light to read. As Robin approached him, the librarian looked up from his novel and gave Robin a small smile, gesturing one of his hands towards the shelves of books as to say "Go ahead." Robin smiled back and walked over to the shelf closest to him. One by one, he examined the titles of books trying to find one that may have been related to the tattoo on his design. Eventually, Robin found himself with three books. One was titled 'The Arts and Intricates of Bodypainting', another was 'Symbols and Marks: What Do They Mean?', and the last was simply 'Grimleal: A History of Darkness and Dragons'. Robin went through the first book he found which contained nothing on what his hand meant and instead contained the history of body paints and what various styles meant. The second book contained information on marks that were important to Ylisse, most notably the Mark of the Exalt. Still, it did not have any information relevant to the mark on his hand. Finally, Robin opened the book he was sure would have something about the mark. He spent a few hours reading through this book, learning more about the purpose of the Grimleal. They were a religious group dedicated to worshiping deities of destruction, most notably having worshipped Medeus during his reign. The religion went dark for ages, only gaining some small traction when stories of a dragon named Grima emerged from the books that described the King and Queen of Valentia's venture into an abandoned laboratory in the former land of Thabes.

Robin found himself growing worried that his question would go unanswered as he neared the end of the book. So far he had learned facts about the history and practices of the Grimleal, but nothing on what his hand meant. He then turned the page for the final chapter titled 'The Grimleal in the Modern Day'. This section of the book detailed the current leader, a man named Validar, and his close association with Plegia's government. Robin continued to read until he turned a page that displayed exactly what he was looking for. It displayed a drawing of the exact same mark on his hand and had a description on the bottom.

'The Eyes of Grima is a mark given to those who are to be sacrificed to the Fell Dragon, Grima, in hoped that one day the dragon will one day return to reward those who offered it gifts, and destroy the people who did not worship him. It is said that this practice has been performed on over one thousand Grimleal worshippers and has since become an increasingly unpopular ritual within the religion itself, having lessened the frequency of sacrifices from nearly one person a week, to one person every ten years and only being extended to Grimleal worshippers that have commited severe crimes against the religion.

The design is meant to represent a doorway between the individual being sacrificed and the Fell Dragon itself as the six eyes that correspond with the dragon are supposed to allow it to watch the soul of the individual. The mark is often bestowed upon the person being offered by either the father of the person or the current leader of the Grimleal.'

Robin slammed the book shut as he remembered the dream he had a few nights ago.

 _What happened to Mother?_

Gods, was it possible?

 _She served her purpose. Creating you, a true descendant of the Dark Dragon's blood._

It had to be someone else. There was no way he could be someone who was going to be sacrificed to an evil dragon. He then looked at the hand that caused him to learn this information.

 _My love belongs only to the Fell Dragon. She, as well as I, are only steps in returning him to our world._

Robin thrusted himself up from his seat and hurriedly walked away from the book and the table. Once he reached his room, Robin forced his eyes shut and would not open them until sunlight shone through the window.

Robin dreamt of being an un-embodied presence watching over a small village. It was early in the morning and the villagers had just woken up to attend to their tasks. Robin was disgusted at this sight. These did not deserve to be alive as they did not benefit a greater power. Even slaves build monuments. With this, he decided their only salvation would be to join the countless souls that formed his army. Robin willed the appearance of eye portals all around the village and called for the saviors to emerge from them. Eventually he heard the people in the village scream as they were assimilated into his forces. It did not matter if they were whole or in pieces, every ounce of them, every drop of blood, would be used to craft them into more saviors. His face then emerged in front of him, though now purple eyes ran below his normal ones, which were now glowing the same way the Risen were.

Robin slammed his eyes shut and snapped himself back into reality once he realized he was staring into a mirror. When his eyes opened, he saw his normal face staring back at him, though now his eyes were notably bloodshot. Robin's heart nearly stopped as loud banging emerged from the door to his room.

"Rise and shine Robin!" Lissa said loudly.

Robin sighed at Lissa's wake-up call and looked back at his face in the mirror. It was only a fleeting moment, but he was able to remember exactly what his face looked like in the dream. He then looked at the mark on his hand. It had the exact same eye shape as the ones below his eyes in the dream.

Robin shook off his thoughts on the dream and believed it was only because of what he read last night and nothing more. He cleaned himself up, put on his clothes and cloak, and left his room to begin his journey to Ferox.

* * *

The plan was to have the new recruits split into two groups, Bull Company and Panther Company, with one group traveling to the villages west of Ylisse and the other group to the villages west of Ylisstol. The Shepherds would travel north to Ferox to ask for their support in eliminating the threat of the Risen as the concerning part of the journey was what the Pegasus Knights' scouts had reported. Already, several villages had already been destroyed by the Risen with little to no survivors in the aftermath. Along with that, a massive horde of Risen had been growing from the abandoned battlefield where the Risen had first appeared, which meant that all of the villages to the south of Ylisse had already been attacked by the Risen. It was estimated that there were hundreds of thousands of Risen traversing across Ylisstol, making the only bright side they could be gleaned from this situation was that the Risen became an unintentional block towards any kind of invasion from Plegia. Orders given, the leaders of all three groups said their goodbyes and went their ways.

The trek north to Ferox was two things to Robin. The first, was that is was a massive slog. Chrom opted to have the Shepherds march to Ferox rather than to simply have everyone pulled by carriages. According to Chrom, this was meant to "Bolster spirits and improve our endurance!" to which Robin smirked at considering the only thing he felt was utter exhaustion. The second thing of note, there hadn't been a single Risen soldier during their march. At the beginning of their journey, Robin figured there wouldn't be many of the creatures during the first few hours of the march. They had been marching for over eight hours not a single Risen had been spotted. While one would think this to be a relief, Robin found this to be concerning. He knew that they had an ability to plan based of Chrom's description of his encounter with them at the abandoned battlefield. So could it be that they were simply planning some type of massive ambush? It'd make sense now that there was ten of them, er, eleven. Was there always an armored knight with them?

"Yield!" Chrom yelled.

Everyone stopped their march within seconds. Knowing that this meant danger was around, everyone's senses were heightened as they tried to figure out the cause of the stop. Then they heard it. The sounds of grass rustling all around them.

"Raaaah!" a Risen soldier growled as it swung an axe at Chrom. As on cue with the attack, several more Risen emerged from the tall blades of grass and started to attack the Shepherds. Chrom deflected the swing of the axe and lunged his sword into the creature's head.

"Miriel!" Chrom yelled.

"On it!" Miriel replied, taking out a red tome.

"Arcfire!" she yelled, creating a stream of flames that spewed from her hand. Everyone knew what this meant and jumped to the ground as the spun the flame around her, burning the grass that hid the Risen as well as the Risen themselves. The grass quickly burnt to the ground, though it took a few moments for the Risen to dissipate despite being engulfed in flames. Once the smoke cleared, they saw that the tall grass around them had been utterly destroyed, along with any Risen that were hiding in the grass. The downside to this minor victory was the reveal of a massive group of Risen soldiers guarding a nearby bridge.

"Damn it." Chrom muttered.

"Gods...Have the Risen really spread this far?" Frederick stated.

"They've engulfed the southern plateaus. Can't say I'm surprised." Robin replied. This caused Chrom and Frederick to angrily look at Robin.

"What?" Robin said offended. "Whatever is summoning these things clearly has the ability to summon them en masse in any location they want." Robin then looked to the sky to find the source.

"Look there." Robin said, pointing at the sky. In direction of where he pointed was the haunting image of another Eye Portal that was sending out a stream of Risen soldiers. When soldiers stopped falling out of the portal, the Eye closed and disappeared.

"That has to be where all these things are coming from." Robin deduced. "If only we could find out what's on the other side…"

Chrom stood up from hiding. "Well right now we have people counting on us to get reinforcements to protect Ylisse from this menace."

Chrom then raised Falchion skyward.

"Onwards soldiers! For Ylisse!"

"Are you a damned idiot?!" Robin yelled.

Chrom lost all momentum from his display of leadership, utterly dumbfounded by Robin's outburst.

"Excuse me?"

"Charging into battle against the Risen is only going to get you and the rest of the Shepherds killed!" Robin stated. "You brought me for a reason right? Let me do what I do best. Sumia!"

Sumia took focus away from petting the mane of her pegasus and straightened up. "Y-yes sir!"

"I need you to fly over the battlefield. See what we're dealing with. Can you do that?"

Sumia grinned. "You can count on me Robin!" she replied. Tapping her feet against her mount, Sumia flew high into the sky and began to circle around the enemy forces.

"Can I speak with you for a moment?" Chrom stated, pulling Robin by the shoulder to an area away from the others. Robin could see by the look on Chrom's face that he wasn't in the best of moods.

"What the hell was that?" Chrom demanded. Robin's eyes squinted a bit, sensing a newfound hostility towards him.

"What was what?"

Chrom laughed. "You know exactly what I'm referring to. Calling me an idiot in front of the Shepherds and ruining the rally cry?"

Robin's eyes lowered. "I'm sorry. It's just that I was caught off guard by you deciding to charge into battle after everything that happened in the forest."

"I understand you stopping my actions, but not the insult. Where did that come from?"

Robin sighed. "It's… it's nothing. Just really anxious is all."

Chrom gave him a look of suspicion. Seeing this, Robin merely walked away from him and back to the group.

"Please prove to me you aren't going to become him." Robin whispered to himself.

Sumia's pegasus gave a loud neigh upon her return. Robin was eager to know what Sumia learned and quickly jogged over to her.

"So, what'd you learn?" Robin inquired.

Sumia threw herself off the pegasus and took out a large piece of paper.

"I mapped out their forces. They've got several soldiers near the entrance to the bridge with a few more stationed at the nearby forts." Sumia then pointed to the land across the bridge. "This is where the bulk of the Risen forces are. They've got around thirty soldiers on both sides of the area."

Robin took the map from her and started to formulate a plan. For several minutes, Robin merely stared at the map, frantically moving his eyes around while he either hummed or said the occasional "Yeah that might…".

"I've got it!" Robin exclaimed, surprising everyone with the sudden break of silence.

"What's your plan?" Stahl asked.

"This plan is made up of three phases." Robin replied, bringing the map over to him. "For the first phase, you, Sully, and Frederick will assault the eastern fort. Try to stay near each other during your attack and make sure to keep an eye on all angles."

Robin then brought the map over to Chrom

"The rest of us will assault the western fort. Chrom, Vaike, and the knight will be on the front lines." He then turned over to Miriel and Virion. "We will provide ranged support."

"Hey what about me?" Lissa said frustrated.

"You'll be with me."

"Hey I can fight on the front lines too y'know!"

"I know." Robin said plainly. "You're also our only healer so I'm counting on you to patch us up during the assault. You are vital to our success, and I'm not just saying that to make you feel better."

Lissa lost her frustrated look and nodded. "Understood."

Robin looked at the Shepherds, now crowded in front of him.

"Any questions?"

No one said a thing.

"Very well. Let's begin."

* * *

The three horsemen rode towards the eastern fort as instructed in a triad formation with Frederick at the front and Sully and Stahl behind him. Frederick kept a silver lance pointed forwards and deliberately ran into any Risen soldier that appeared. Any stragglers that Frederick missed were then easily picked off by Sully and Stahl, who had been keeping score of their kills. Eventually the tree reached the fort and jumped off their steeds. Frederick sheathed his lance and brought out a silver sword, ready for any Risen to emerge from the fort.

"Bait ready?" Frederick asked. Behind him, Stahl was pouring a red liquid into an explosive keg.

"Just about…. done." Stahl said, quickly walking over to Frederick while carrying the keg. Once he reached Frederick, he was instructed to place the keg right at the entrance of the fort. Stahl quickly ran over to the fort and couldn't help but to feel a sense of satisfaction at the plan they had. Risen Bait Explosives, or RBEs, were developed by Miriel and her colleagues after a Risen break out from one of their containment centers back at Ylisstol or, as the cover story would suggest, research on a new spell gone horribly wrong. According to Miriel, one of the mages managed to survive by using the bodies of other members to lure the Risen away from him, allowing him to sneak out of the facility. It was also noted that the bloodier bodies were the most effective lures. While the unfortunate cost to the discovery was several valued members of the Mages Guild, it proved to be an extremely useful method of drawing the Risen out of hiding as the Risen had a strange heightened smell for human blood, theorized to be a skill used by the Risen to find wounded targets.

Stahl placed the keg right at the entrance and tried with all his will to not look into the fortress. Despite his efforts, Stahl took a glance inside the building to satisfy his morbid curiosity. From the glance he took, he could see the tempered red glow of Risen eyes wandering around. As he looked he noticed the eyes were pointed towards him which was then followed by the sounds of multiple groaning corpses. Stahl snapped back at the keg and finished rigging it to blow. He took one glance back into the fort and saw the eyes had grown bigger and brighter. Stahl took out a match, flicked it across the keg, lit the fuse, and ran like hell away from the fort. As he ran, Stahl looked back behind him to see several Risen soldiers emerge from the fort and gawk around the keg. He took this moment to slow down and watch the trap ensnare its prey as only a few moments later keg detonated to create a powerful explosion. Once the smoke, both gray and purple, cleared away, Stahl could see that the whole fort, once a place meant for soldiers to stay in and defend through the ages, was now nothing but a crumbling pile of cobblestone.

"Gods, I hope Frederick is having an easier time than we are!" Chrom yelled as he tore his blade out of the recently kebabed Risen.

Another soldier jumped at Chrom from behind him and swung its axe at him, barely missing thanks to the fact Chrom had heard the noise it created from its not-so-sneaky sneak attack. Before the creature could land another swing, it was blown back from a bolt of electricity summoned by Robin.

"Damned creatures!" Robin yelled.

Robin was frustrated beyond measure at the tactical prowess the Risen possesed. How could he not have seen that the second fort was merely bait? They knew that he'd split his forces between the two groups and somehow they quickly communicated which fort Chrom and the rest of the infantry chose to attack, evident by how many Risen soldiers began to charge at them from the east, evading any confrontation with Frederick and the cavaliers. Robin figured the only way the Risen were able to have such efficient organization and reactions to their assault was through some kind of hive-mind mentality.

"Robin behind you!" Chrom yelled.

Robin dove forwards while simultaneously turning his body and facing his attacker to summon a blast of thunder, which landed directly against the creature's head. Chrom then jogged over to him and pulled Robin to his feet.

"Thanks." Robin exhaled.

"We're not done yet." Chrom replied.

"You got that right…" Robin exhaled while bending over his knees. Once he caught his breath, Robin looked up to see the rest of the Shepherds engaged in battle.

Vaike and the knight were nearly back to back as they faced the advancing Risen soldiers. As one soldier neared the knight, he charged forward with his shield and bashed the creature down and followed this up by shoving his lance into the creature's head. Vaike watched the knight's back to protect the knight from being attacked as while the knight was strong, he was also significantly slowed down by his heavy armor. Suddenly, three Risen soldiers began running towards the two and were roaring loudly. Seeing this, Vaike readied his axe and hastily charged towards the soldiers. Once Vaike approached the one closest to him, he jumped up in the air and slammed his axe down onto the zombie. The second soldier was now closer to Vaike and raised its blade to kill him. Vaike gave it his trademark cocky smile and charged towards the creature. Once he reached it, Vaike kicked the creature's chest and caused it to fall onto the ground. Vaike took the opening, raised his axe like an executioner, and lopped the Risen's head off. Vaike gave himself a moment to breath and recover. A few seconds went by until he remembered something. There had been three of those creatures. Vaike turned behind him to see the third soldier already mid-swing into its attack. Before Vaike could even react to the creature's attack, a steel shield slid in front of him. The knight blocked the creature's attack and caused it to recoil back, giving him the window he needed to stab the Risen soldier through its chest. The knight looked back to Virion, now seated on the ground in awe, and gave him a thumbs-up.

Miriel, Virion, Lissa, and Sumia were engaged with a much larger group of soldiers than Vaike and the knight had dealt with despite being instructed to stay behind the front lines though this was less of a matter of disobeying orders or more to do with the fact the front lines had been split into two groups once the eastern Risen forces attacked. Lissa ignored any notion of supporting her allies through healing and took to the battlefield the moment the chaos ensued. Lissa's use of an axe was much more nimble than Vaike. Where Vaike would slug an axe with enough momentum to cut down several trees at once, Lissa sliced at precise points with her stave-axe. Through her efforts, Lissa had created a sizeable perimeter for Virion and Miriel to engage in ranged combat. Virion fired arrows at the more heavily armored targets while Miriel targeted weaker, more exposed soldiers as well as any stragglers from Lissa's onslaught. Sumia had taken to the sky and used a series of air strikes to combat the Risen. Through this method, Sumia and her pegasus would charge down towards their target and strike against it as they flew by and back up to the sky.

"Sweet Miriel, I have a proposal to make with you!" Virion yelled.

"Now is not the time for romantic theatrics." Miriel coldy replied.

"But it is a brilliant proposal! We shall strike a blaze of crimson through the rain of arrows!"

"What in the world are you-" Miriel started, only to be interrupted as she witnessed Virion fire an arrow through one of her fireballs, causing the tip to catch fire. Once the arrow pierced its target, the creature was immediately engulfed in flames.

"Ah ha! You've mixed the speed and precision of your arrows with the destructiveness of my fire tome. What ingenuity!" Miriel complimented. Virion merely bowed in response. Together, the two launched a volley of fire at their enemies. The arrows struck Risen after Risen, nearly taking out every soldier that was in the area.

With the area cleared of all Risen forces, everyone regrouped at the wooden bridge.

"Nice thinking with the fire arrows." said Robin.

Virion bowed just as before in response. "Glad to be of use."

Sumia then flew down from the sky and landed near the Shepherds.

"Are they ok?" Chrom asked.

Sumia smiled. "They should be here any moment." Chrom gave a sigh of relief in reponse.

Robin looked over at the rest of the Shepherds. Their appearance was notably bruised, dirty, and even burnt a bit, but they still had the eyes of utter conviction. Robin looked down at his own clothes to see that it too was tattered and dirty, causing him to grow a small smile. Then he heard the sound of hooves stomping onto the ground. Robin looked towards the direction the sound was coming from to expectantly see Frederick, Sully, and Stahl riding atop their horses. Within moments they reached the rest of the Shepherds and hopped off their steeds.

"You guys look like hell. What'd I miss?" Sully asked.

"Turns out the Risen were expecting us to divide our forces between the two forts. Every soldier they had positioned along the path to the eastern fort made their way over to us." Robin replied, shoulder notably shrunken.

"Damn. Wish I could've been there. Sounds like it was a hell of a fight." Sully sighed.

"Well Robin." Chrom turned to face him. "What's next?"

Robin placed his hand on his chin and began to contemplate their next move.

"Well there's several things we need to consider. Firstly, there's bound to be more forces across the bridge than we've faced. Likely spread out across the field." Robin then walked over to the bridge to stare at the forces on the other side. As predicted, there were countless soldiers wandering all across the field.

"If we go as one force, we'll easily be surrounded and slaughtered. However, if we divide into groups it's likely they'll converge all of their forces and pick off our groups one by one." The shepherds grew worried looks on their faces at Robin's words.

"So… what do we do?" Stahl asked.

Robin continued to stare across the bridge. "Hmm… Frederick?"

"Yes Robin?" Frederick replied.

"Do we have anymore RBEs?"

"We have one more, though I doubt it'll be enough to take out enough of their soldiers with how spread out they are. The bait only has a small amount of range to attract the Risen."

Robin turned to look at the Shepherds. As he counted exactly how many of them their were to calculate how many each of them would need to defeat on average, he took note of the knight standing behind all of them.

"You." Robin said, pointing at the back.

"M-me?" the knight replied.

"How much does your armor weigh?" Robin asked

"It weighs around four-hundred pounds sir."

Robin then turned to Sumia.

"How much weight can your pegasus carry?"

Sumia's eyes squinted slightly at Robin's question. "She's right from the stables of the Pegasus Knights. She could carry Frederick and his horse while they were in their armor if she had too."

Robin's eyes sparked at this response.

"I have a plan!"

* * *

Robin's plan had to have been one of the most ludicrous ideas ever conceived by a military tactician. Knowing that Sumia's pegasus could carry an incredible amount of weight, he instructed the knight, who he learned was named Kellam, to remove his armor and to place it on the back of Sumia's pegasus. Before he put the armor on the steed, Robin instructed to have their last RBE placed inside the hollow armor. The plan then would be to have Sumia fly as high as she possibly could, light the RBE, and to push the armor off the pegasus. The idea was that the resulting shockwave of the collision would be loud enough for many of the Risen soldiers to hear and they would be attracted by the noise, luring them into a trap. This would dramatically reduce the amount of soldiers spread across the field and allow them to continue their march to Ferox.

At first Sumia's pegasus was reluctant to put the hollow armor on its back, which was already a challenge in and of itself as it took the combined strength of Sully, Stahl, Vaike, Frederick, and Kellam to even lift the armor. Eventually Sumia coerced the animal to put the armor on its back causing the lifting team to fall on their backs, groaning from the soreness in their arms. Sumia climbed onto her pegasus and within seconds, she, the pegasus, and the armor were speeding into the air. As they went higher, Sumia continued to encourage her steed as it showed visible strain from flying this high with the heavy armor on its back. Eventually they were far above the battlefield that they could barely make out the dots of the Shepherds back on the ground. Sumia believed this was high enough for them to go, lit the keg placed inside the armor, and immediately began pushing against it. Sumia struggled at first, barely being able to move the armor despite all her effort but thankfully the pegasus decided to lean backwards which caused the armor to slide off and plumet towards the ground.

When the amor finally collided with the ground it caused a great amount of dirt to be thrown up as well as creating the loud noise the Shepherds were hoping for. As planned, all of the Risen soldiers turned towards the armor and began to approach it. Eventually the armor was utterly surrounded by countless soldiers that were curiously touching the armor trying to find out what exactly this object was. Unfortunately for them, the flame climbing the wick had reached the keg and a large explosion engulfed them. The force of the explosion was enough to send some of their limbs flying across the battlefield and acted as a smoke bomb of sorts as trails of purple smoke followed them.

"It worked Robin!" Chrom cheered.

"My my, what a wonderful sight!" Virion commented.

Robin smiled at their comments and the satisfaction he felt, though he then went back to his cautionary mindset."Sully, Stahl, when the smoke clears I need you two to eliminate any stragglers that may still be standing. " Robin ordered.

"You sure White? Seems like we got them." Sully replied.

"Better to be safe than sorry. We can't take the chance of-"

"CAPTAIN CHROM!" Yelled an unfamiliar voice. Chrom and Robin looked towards the direction of the voice to see a Pegasus Knight closing in on their location.

"What is it?" Chrom said once the knight reached them. The Pegasus Knight extended her arm towards Chrom with a piece of paper in her hand. Chrom took the paper and began reading.

"What's happened?" Robin asked.

The Pegasus Knight looked towards him with a grave look on her face.

"Bull Company was completely destroyed."

* * *

The recruits were instructed that the Risen had infested lands all across Ylisse leading many to believe many of the villages had already been destroyed. To their surprise, they passed by village after village, sending each of the villagers back to Ylisstol with an escort of about four soldiers each as they were instructed. Eventually they approached a strange village because this one was empty. There were no signs of a struggle either. It was if all of the villagers had simply stopped what they were doing. This unnerved the soldiers of Bull Company as they had seemingly stumbled upon a ghost town. As they explored the town, the theory that the villagers had literally stopped what they were doing and left became more and more of possibility than a joking suggestion. One soldier, a woman specializing in lances, walked into a home. Various toys were scattered across the living room, one being a sewn doll that looked like a Pegasus Knight. The soldier crouched down to pick the doll up and began to examine it, only to be interrupted by the sound of a cough from below. She quickly dropped the doll and prepped her lance. She then realized that there was a strange outline on the floor. Slowly walking to the outline, she saw that it was actually a hidden door to the basement. With the lance in hand, she yanked the door open, only to find the opposite of a walking corpse. It was a little boy, sitting down with his knees tucked to his chest.

"What are you doing in here?" the soldier asked.

"I… I'm…" the boy sniffed, as if he had been crying.

Suddenly, a loud scream could be heard. The soldier took her attention away from the boy to look out a window to see the cause of the scream. What she saw came straight from her nightmares. Her allies were being attacked by Risen, but they were different from the ones she had expected to see. These risen were moving as if they were melted with the ground and swiftly evaded attacks from the soldiers fighting them. It wasn't long before every single soldier outside had been wiped out. The soldier inside the house with the boy couldn't help but to cover her mouth as she wept. She closed her eyes trying to control the tears in the hope to avoid making a noise that would attract the creatures. When she opened her eyes, she was horrified to see that every single body of her allies were gone. There was no sign of them, or even of a struggle. They were caught in a damn trap.

The soldier shook her head, if these things were able to kill an entire squadron of soldiers, they surely could cause misfortune for the other squad and even the Shepherds. She had to escape the village. She turned away from the mirror and saw that the hidden door was closed again and the child was missing. While she wouldn't want anyone else to be killed by these things, she also knew escorting a child, on foot no less, would slow her down and allow the Risen to kill both of them. But what kind of person would she be to abandon a defenseless child to the enemy? Surely she would want someone to rescue her if she was in the same situation… a situation that would happen again if she perished. Regretfully, she decided to leave the boy in the basement, hoping that if he had managed to evade these creatures for this long, he could hide from them a bit longer. The soldier looked outside the window one last time to see the streets just as empty as before. She knew that, even if she couldn't see them, they were watching the street. They could even be watching her right now. Figuring her only chance of espcaping would be to run as quickly as she could, she took off her armor and placed her lance on the wall, leaving only the underclothes and her shoes on. The soldier walked over to the front entrance of the house and gripped the door handle. Her hand trembled as she tried to turn it and let herself out. Finally, she breathed deeply and calmed herself.

She sprinted from the house the moment she left the door frame, and as if on cue, puddles of purple began to emerge from all directions. They swiftly caught up right to her and began to take form, eventually being able to reach out with their arms and swing their claws at her. Several swiped landed and tore at her skin, causing a trail of blood to fall from her wounds. She tried to ignore the pain as she ran, putting all of her focus into maintaining as little space away from the Risen as she could get. She almost passed the final house when she nearly stopped in her tracks. There, straight in front of her, was a Risen. Waiting for her. The soldier continued to run, figuring she had a better chance of evading the creature in front of her than trying to find an alternate path to take. As she neared it, the Risen stretched out its arms and flung them towards her. The soldier narrowly dodged the first arm, though it still managed to create a large gash on her leg, causing her to limp and lose some speed. Unfortunately, this lack of speed would prove to be redundant as the second arm took advantage of her wound and sliced right through the other leg, causing her to fall. She screamed loudly, letting out all of the pain she had tried to endure, all of the anger at failing this close to success, all of the sadness at failing to avenge her comrades, and all of the fear she felt towards dying.

As she looked around, she noticed the other Risen that had been chasing her were now occupying themselves with absorbing her blood off the ground, one even absorbing the leg that had been cut off. She then refocused her gaze at the Risen who had condemned her. It was now towering above her and was close enough for her to get a genuine look at it. Its skin was pale and purple, much like the typical Risen appearance, though it seemed more experimental than the normal ones. Stitches were scattered all across the creature's body and they were even circled around joints, meaning the arms and legs attached to this creature may not even be its own. This brought the horrible thought of these creatures being assembled out of the people they killed, including her leg. The soldier looked up to the head of the creature and continued to gorge on the horror of its design. There was no head, or not a regular human head. Instead, the hood was hollow and only had two opening for the trademark glowing red eyes of the Risen. The hood itself was similar to the mask the regular Risen wore as it too was made stitched together from human skin.

The soldier began to sob. Not only was she going to die helpless to stop these creatures, but she knew that she would be used to make another one of these creatures. The monster stabbed one its claws through her chest and lifted her up, causing her to cough up blood. She saw the second claw position itself away from her neck and began to scream and plead for her life, to no avail. She heard the sound of blades swiping the air, and closed her eyes to wait for death. It didn't come. Instead, she fell to the ground along with the arm that was dug through her chest. A second blade twirled through the air, and what came to the ground this time was the skin hood of the Risen, along with a small handaxe next to it. The soldier looked up to see two men, one holding a set of hand-axes, and the other wielding a bow. She almost yelled for help when she heard another sound, a sound of liquid moving. The soldier looked behind her to see the other Risen swiftly moving towards her.

"Hold them off!" the man with hand-axes ordered. The archer nodded and began to fire arrows at the creatures. While some were able to swiftly dodge the arrows, some managed to land right between the hoods, causing the creature to evaporate into purple smoke. The hand-axe man sprinted over to the soldier, who had now fainted from blood loss. Seeing the countless amounts wounds along with the missing leg, the man brought out a flame tome and used it to cauterize the wounds. Knowing how painful it was to have a simple chest wound cauterized, he was thankful the soldier wasn't conscious otherwise every Risen creature may have been able to hear the screams. Assured she wouldn't perish from blood loss, the man picked her up and slung her across his body. He looked back for a moment to see a mass of purple haze, as well as red glowing eyes.

"Valrav, do NOT enter the village!" he yelled to the archer.

"Revenant trap?" Valrav yelled back.

"Revenant trap." he confirmed.

"Where are you bastards hiding the bait?" he muttered quietly, looking in every direction for the trapper.

"Help!" a boy screamed. The man turned towards the scream to see a boy crying and being surrounded by Revenants.

"You bastards…" the man said under his breath.

He then slung an axe towards the boy. As expected, once the axe dug into the boy's face, the guise dissipated to reveal another Revenant that dissipated into purple smoke. Now that the trap was averted, the man jogged over to Valrav with the soldier on his back. Together, they escaped the village and found a nearby village that was in the process of being warned by the Pegasus Knights. There they dropped off the soldier to be flown to a hospital in Ylisstol. The Pegasus Knights thanked the two men and offered them to join the nearby militia group that was traversing the area. The two declined, but mentioned to the Pegasus Knights that they should avoid and report any towns that looked abandoned. As they departed ways, the two thought it best to leave out the detail that they'd come across many bodies of both villagers and soldiers figuring the soldier herself would be able to give better insight towards the destruction of Bull Company.

* * *

Chrom removed his eyes from the piece of paper, eyes full of shock and appall. Chrom then crumpled the paper in his hand and slugged it away in rage.

"Dammit!" he yelled.

"Do you have anything I should relay to Panther Company?" The Pegasus Knight asked.

"Tell them to fall back to Ylisstol and organize their forces into a defense force."

The knight nodded in response. She tapped the side of her pegasus and soon, she was far away from the Shepherds. Chrom turned to Robin and the rest of the Shepherds, who were now staring at him.

"We need to get to Ferox immediately." he said plainly. He then looked at Robin, who was still staring absentmindedly at the ground with a look of despair on his face.

"Oh gods… what have I done…"


End file.
